Building materials stores appear.

At building materials convenience stores, consumers can buy paints and glue in small containers. It's possible to return unused materials after decorating the home, and call for on-site services to change a light bulb or when the drain is blocked. A new culture of home building materials consumption has emerged.

Diyi Building Materials Convenience Store opens for business next month. Such stores are mostly located in big residential developments or around building materials hypermarkets. They're usually between 100 and 200 sqm in size and stand out as "small but compact" operations, in contrast to large building materials supermarkets.

Also unlike supermarkets, these stores sell hardware tools, paints and other products in small packs for every day use. They also provide delivery and on-site services for home and office decorating.

Shanghai's home decorating market generates an annual sales turnover of over Rmb60 billion. Although turnover is growing from year to year, competition is intense.

The UK's B&Q has 11 stores in Shanghai and will open two more this year. The Mainland's Homemart has 13 stores; Home900 has six while La Maison has three.

With the sudden emergence of this sector, suppliers could be looking at a whole new stream of sales in Shanghai.

from Kelly Dai, Shanghai Office

(Image courtesy of Xinhua News Agency)