A man reads a closure notice at the entrance of La Maison's flagship store on Yishan Road in Shanghai yesterday. La Maison has closed its seven stores in Shanghai and will withdraw from the Chinese mainland market on the heels of the sudden closure of Best Buy and Barbie.
La Maison, a European building material distributor, has closed its seven stores in Shanghai and will withdraw from the Chinese mainland market on the heels of the sudden closure of Best Buy and Barbie.
The company have suffered great losses and are unable to continue its operations in China, La Maison said in a statement on Tuesday.
It opened its first home decoration store in Shanghai in 2005 and launched six more four years later across the city, offering customers interior decoration, construction, renovation and sustainable home improvement products.
La Maison said its flagship store on Yishan Road will reopen from Saturday till the end of May to wrap up business with suppliers and customers. Through March 25, customers can also go to the store to handle refund requests.
Local customers were stunned at the closure coming not long after the two other American retailers closed their doors.
"Compared with electrical products, interior decoration products are much more complicated to deal with," said a customer surnamed Wu, who expressed concern about the after-sale service.
He said consumers would find it hard to complain about defects in decoration, which may occur years later.
Customers chose La Maison as it was Europe's leading distributor of building materials so that they would have fewer concerns about quality.
"Since interior decoration may last decades, we seek good quality and service even at higher prices," Wu said.
Zhu Pingsheng, a local lawyer, advised customers to safeguard their rights quickly before the company completes its de-registration from the mainland market.
