TANG YUE, a 27-year-old teacher from the city of Guilin in southwestern China, steam-presses a blue dress and takes dozens of photographs before picking one to clinch her 200th online sale. For a growing number of Chinese like Tang, hit by job losses, furloughs and salary cuts, the consumer economy has begun to spin in reverse. They are no longer buying – they are selling. Instead of emerging from the coronavirus epidemic and returning to the shopping habits that helped drive the world’s second-largest economy, many young people are offloading possessions and embracing a new-found ethic for hard times: less is more. With Tang’s monthly salary of about 7,000 yuan (US$988), the self-described shopaholic said she has bought everything from Chanel lipsticks to Apple’s latest iPad in the past three years. But the adrenaline rush that comes with binge shopping is gone, said Tang, whose wages have been slashed with the suspension of all the classes on tourism management she usually teaches. There is no guarantee that the nascent minimalist trend will continue once the coronavirus crisis is fully over, but if it does, it could hurt thousands of businesses from big retailers to street-corner restaurants, gyms and beauty salons. A recent McKinsey & Co. survey showed that between 20 percent and 30 percent of respondents in China said they would continue to be cautious, either consuming slightly less or, in a few cases, a lot less. “The lockdown provided consumers with a lot of time and reasons to reflect and consider what is important to them,” said Mark Tanner, managing director at Shanghai-based research and marketing consultancy China Skinny. Bargain-hunting online has become a new habit for some Chinese as the stigma that once hung over second-hand goods has begun to fade. Idle Fish, China’s biggest online site for used goods, hit a record daily transaction volume in March, its parent company Alibaba said. Government researchers predict that transactions for used goods in China may top 1 trillion yuan (US$141 billion) this year.(SD-Agencies) |