AROUND 300 grocery trucks have disappeared from Shenzhen’s streets after a seven-year operation.

The mobile grocery shops were set up in October 2011 by the city government as a way of offsetting the costs caused by inflation. They had been popular in the neighborhoods because of their low prices compared to supermarkets and convenience stores and good quality, but they also drew criticism for occupying the city’s streets, especially in busy downtown areas, and their vicious competition.

However, in the past month, residents began to notice the mobile grocery shops had disappeared because the contract between the city’s planning authority and the farm produce company were terminated.

According to the city’s development and reform commission, the Shenzhen government started offering the agricultural produce company 70 million yuan (US$10 million) a year in October 2011 to set up the mobile grocery shops in order to combat the price hikes.

Statistics showed the prices of the vegetables sold at the mobile shops were 30 percent lower than those at supermarkets. The prices of pork, eggs and cereals were generally 8 percent lower. Each of the shops sold their products for around six hours a day, mainly during the morning and evening rush hours, and could earn around 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a day.

The existence of the grocery shops even forced supermarkets to lower their prices. They drew criticism from the industry for causing unfair business competition among grocery sellers. In the beginning of 2017, some political advisers in the city suggested canceling the service since it occupied streets and caused vicious competition and protests from wet markets and supermarkets.

However, the introduction of the mobile grocery shops was just an interim measure so that the government could control the fast rise of commodity prices. According to a report in the Southern Metropolis Daily, quoting an agreement from the city’s planning authority, the contract expired in September 2015. The two sides later signed an auxiliary contract to extend the service to the end of this September. (Han Ximin)