City's retailers and customers welcome opening-up
Most retailers have ample supply of fresh food and daily groceries as restrictions eased on Wednesday.
Retailers and beverage chain stores opened up on Wednesday on a limited scale, and they hope to add more staff in the coming days to satisfy pent-up demand.
Online platforms are offering different incentives to reboot the economy.
Li Defeng is among one of the several hundred Meituan staff who arrived in Shanghai to ensure daily operations ahead of the lockdown and he intends to stay for several more weeks.
"As restrictions are eased in more areas, online purchases now include more leisure items in addition to food and daily necessities and I plan to keep up the work until most dispatch centers resume normal operations," he said.
For food takeaway vendors on Meituan, it pledges 40 million yuan (US$6 million) to help them optimize online menu items and operations and over 500 million yuan of shopping coupons and subsidies to help vendors promote their virtual stores.
Alibaba's digital map and car-hailing service Amap is exempting drivers from commission fees through partnering with third-party car-hailing firms for six days starting Wednesday while following strict pandemic prevention rules.
A Nayuki's Tea staff prepares takeaway orders for Shanghai shoppers.
Retailers have made full preparations for foot traffic to return as more are expected to return to work on next Monday.
Over 20 Nayuki's Tea beverage stores start to offer takeaway service through its official WeChat mini program and third-party sites like Meituan and Ele.me on Wednesday, and another 10 stores are set to resume operation on next Monday.
Tea drink chain store Heytea has been offering bottled drinks through community group buying since mid April and expect most stores to resume normal opening hours in the coming days.
A total of 19 staff returned to Adidas flagship store on Nanjing Road E. at the end of May and it will bring back more employees this week.
Several more stores including those in Taikoo Li Qiantan and the Bailian Outlet Plaza in Qingpu District.
Online deliveries have returned to normal level in late May for apparel retailer Uniqlo and selected offline stores have offered customers with pick-up service.
Some offline outlets including the Nanjing Road W. flagship store are expected to open doors on the weekend.
The shopping cart is packed with food and beverage as Sam's Club store resumed normal opening hours on Wednesday.
Walmart's Tianlin store in Xuhui District offered a half-hour designated shopping period for the elderly before normal store hours as foot traffic return.
Sam's Club stores also resumed normal opening hours and online community group purchases cease operations. In-store tasting is still restricted and camping facilities, alcohols and toys are especially popular.
