Shanghai Municipality, east China - Aug 28, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of people entering Costco store
2. Various of people shopping in Costco
3. Various of people registering for Costco membership
4. Various of phone screen showing surge in Costco's stock prices
5. Various of exterior, logo of Sam's Club
6. Various of people shopping, checking out
7. Andrew Miles, president of Sam's Club China, talking to reporter
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Miles, president, Sam's Club China (partially overlaid with shot 9):
"We've seen really strong growth, strong growth in our members, double-digit growth, strong growth in our sales. So we have plans in Shanghai for another six clubs, and throughout China, by 2023, we're going to have 40 clubs up in trading."
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9. Tills in Sam's Club
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10. Entrance to Aldi store
11. Commodities in Aldi store
12. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Chen Yougang, chairman, Aldi China (partially overlaid with shot 13):
"At present, we are applying for the establishment of regional headquarters in China. We can say that our business performance over the past two months has been really encouraging. China is a large market and has a large number of new world-class retail formats, which has boosted our confidence in increasing investment and expanding business in China."
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13. Various of people shopping in Aldi
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14. Various of Bernd Hallier, president of European Retail Academy (ERA), chatting with people
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernd Hallier, president, European Retail Academy (ERA) (ending with shot 16):
"So we have to be here now, or we are too late. In marketing, you say, 'Shoot first or be dead'. So if people don't come now to China. They should then sell their business because then it's too late to enter the market."

FILE: Shanghai Municipality, east China - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
16. People walking
17. People at the Bund
18. Aerial shots of cityscape

Foreign retailers have increased and will continue to expand their investment in China, the second largest consumer market in the world, despite the U.S. president's move to order American companies to withdraw from China.

U.S. based retail giant Costco Wholesale opened its first brick-and-mortar store on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday. The store is located in Shanghai Municipality, east China.

Briefly after its opening, the strong purchasing power of Chinese consumers amazed the U.S. retailer. Statistics showed that in only two hours since it opened, over 10,000 people had visited the store, with the average consumer spending exceeding 1,000 yuan (around 139.64 U.S. dollars).

So far, 130,000 plus people have registered for the membership at the Costco in Shanghai, setting a new record for the membership in a single store of Costco in the world.

It is because of the huge potential of the Chinese consumer market that many foreign retailers have expanded their business in Shanghai since the beginning of 2019.

On June 7, the German grocery chain Aldi opened its first store in China in the city of Shanghai. Later, Nitori, Japan's biggest homeware chain, announced that they will have 1,000 stores opened in the Chinese mainland by 2032, which even exceeds Japan's total store number of 700.

Sam's Club, a Walmart-owned membership warehouse club, also opened a new store in Shanghai on June 28. It is the second shop of it opened in Shanghai for the last nine years, and also the 26th in China.

Andrew Miles, president of Sam's Club China, said in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) that it is the good performances of their business in China that gave them the confidence to keep investing.

"We've seen really strong growth, strong growth in our members, double-digit growth, strong growth in our sales. So we have plans in Shanghai for another six clubs, and throughout China, by 2023, we're going to have 40 clubs up in trading," said Miles.

Foreign retailers have also benefited from China's strong purchasing power, with the latest figures showing that retail sales at 122 foreign enterprises above the designated size in Shanghai increased by nine percent year-on-year.

"At present, we are applying for the establishment of regional headquarters in China. We can say that our business performance over the past two months has been really encouraging. China is a large market and has a large number of new world-class retail formats, which has boosted our confidence in increasing investment and expanding business in China," Chen Yougang, chairman of Aldi China, told the CCTV.

Bernd Hallier, president of the European Retail Academy (ERA), is currently doing a market survey in Shanghai. He said he thinks it is a wise choice for foreign retailers to increase their investment in Shanghai now, because China's consumer market is huge and dynamic.

"So we have to be here now, or we are too late. In marketing, you say, 'Shoot first or be dead'. So if people don't come now to China. They should then sell their business because then it's too late to enter the market," said Hallier.

From January to July this year, Shanghai attracted 1,506 foreign-funded business and trade projects, accounting for 36.7 percent of the total number of projects the city received in the seven-month period.

The business and trade industries brought in contractual foreign investment worth 3.54 billion U.S. dollars, which accounted for 12.9 percent of the total amount of foreign investment in those industries.