Old department stores sell nostalgic journey to past

Touching experience

The store's layout has changed over the years.

The third floor is now devoted entirely to down jackets. The basement sells bedding, handmade quilts and thousands of fabrics, while the first floor carries classic Chinese cosmetics brands, such as Yumeijing and Friendship.

The merchandise may seem anachronistic compared with the items in Beijing's glossy new shopping malls. But that is precisely the point, Ma noted.

The main customers are middle-aged and older shoppers who prefer to see, touch and try on products before buying them.

"Online shopping can exaggerate things," Ma said. "If you come here, you can see the product for yourself."

People under 35 also frequent the store. Some come out of curiosity, drawn to the basement's old-fashioned fabrics and handmade quilts. Others come to buy gifts for their parents or grandparents, or to choose inexpensive clothes for their children.

The store has begun using social media, but its livestreams do not sell products directly. Instead, employees demonstrate clothes, explain products and tell viewers where to find them in the store.

The strategy has produced good results.

When the store began livestreaming a traditional shoe brand, Jinhua Cloth Shoes, inexpensive footwear that cost less than 100 yuan, the brand's daily sales varied only from 100 yuan to a few hundred yuan. After a livestream, sales on one Saturday reached 2,600 yuan ($388) — about 26 times the usual level.

The store deliberately avoids the polished, heavily beautified look common in livestreaming. Its hosts are ordinary employees, sometimes with fuller figures, who wear the clothes themselves.

Ma is optimistic about the future of the old department store. By July and August 2025, sales had recovered to roughly the same level as the corresponding period in 2019.

He sees this as proof old stores can adapt without abandoning what makes them distinctive. "Through embracing new media in different ways, an old department store can find a new life," he said.

The store is now considering further changes, including bringing popular restaurants to its entrance and planning new online businesses.

But Ma is careful about changing too much.

"In a city where shopping has increasingly become an experience built around novelty, restaurants and entertainment, we are offering something different: a place where an old piece of Beijing's retail culture is still being practiced, one customer at a time," he said.