The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2024–2025
Pang Dong Lai lent Yonghui its retail method; remodeled stores reopened packed
Yu Donglai's staff sat in Yonghui stores for three weeks, resetting range, prices, staff and pay — and crowds followed.
Yonghui Superstores · Pang Dong Lai
the move
In May 2024, loss-making Yonghui Superstores started handing its stores to a rival: Pang Dong Lai, the Henan retailer famous for high wages and obsessive service, began remodeling Yonghui outlets. By late November 2024, 14 remodeled stores were open, 20 were due by month-end and 40–50 by Chinese New Year.
A remodel is a full reset: stores close for about three weeks while the Pang Dong Lai team changes product structure, prices, layout, service and staff treatment. One Zhengzhou store added 10% more SKUs, introduced Pang Dong Lai own-brand goods, expanded staffing from 64 to 200, and raised the minimum wage from 2,800 to 4,500 yuan a month.
The reopened store was mobbed — local supermarket owners, suppliers and media arrived to study it, and Yonghui's CEO told Caixin the overhaul was the answer to big-box decline. The wave became Pang-style remodels, with other chains copying or hiring the method; Caixin asked whether the effect was alchemy or adrenaline.
why it works
- The visiting team fixes everything at once instead of one pilot at a time.
- Higher wages and more staff turn service into a differentiator shoppers reward.
- Borrowing a proven format beats inventing a turnaround from scratch.
- Every remodeled store doubles as an advertisement for the method.
what transfers
A winning store format can be transferred like know-how: lend it to a struggling chain and your authority and the industry's demand for your help multiply.
what came after
By mid-2026 Yonghui had completed hundreds of remodeled stores and returned to profit in the first half, while a remodeling-consultant industry emerged with mixed results; Pang Dong Lai positioned itself as a retail school and repeatedly said it had no interest in taking over other chains.
references
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