Troubled bakery chain reopens stores despite COVID-19 impact
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A staff member works behind the counter at a reopened Christine store on Xinxi Road in Minhang District on Tuesday.
Dong Jun / SHINE -
A staff arranges breads at a reopened Christine store on Xinxi Road in Minhang District on Tuesday.
Dong Jun / SHINE -
A staff works at a reopened Christine store on Xinxi Road in Minhang District on Tuesday.
Dong Jun / SHINE -
A customer picks up breads at an reopened Christine store on Xinxi Road in Minhang District.
Dong Jun / SHINE -
A reopened Christine store on Xinxi Road in Minhang District.
Dong Jun / SHINE
Troubled local bakery chain Christine has reopened some of its outlets after the company promised to honor its wildly distributed prepaid cards and vouchers.
Most of the first batch of 89 stores have reopened since Monday, except some with malfunctioning air-conditioners or refrigerators, after a long suspension, according to Shanghai Christine Foodstuff Co.
All the bakery's street outlets and central kitchens will gradually restore operations this month, but the stores within local Metro stations will be officially shut down, the company revealed.
Local customers found that although Shanghai emerged from the long COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in June, many Christine stores failed to reopen until late last month.
The brand was later placed on a risk-warning list of Shanghai's single-purpose prepaid card service platform by regulators, making customers fret about the validity of the vouchers they had yet to use.
In response to the risk warning, the company said that it was still wrestling with the great impact from the COVID-19 resurgence and promised to reopen stores in August.
A reopened outlet on Jianguo Road W. in Xuhui District attracted many customers on Tuesday. About 40 percent of them came with prepaid cards or vouchers. Some popular products, such as tarts and toasts, were sold out by noon.
"The company is a time-honored brand of Shanghai, so I trust it will keep its words," said one of the customers, who purchased some cakes with three pieces of vouchers.
Christine was founded in Shanghai in 1993 as one of the earliest foreign-invested bakery firms on the Chinese mainland. It later developed into the nation's largest bakery chain and is listed as a time-honored brand of Shanghai.
