FIELDS China, the longest running English language online grocer has ceased operations as of today, April 19, 2019.
*Updates on the current status of reimbursements at the bottom of this page*
An announcement posted on their website homepage, states the end of operations comes from a change in development strategy of Sun Art Retail Group, the investment holding company of FIELDS.
All services on FIELDS China platforms have been halted. All pages on the site redirect to the notice, and the mobile application is now offline.
The online closure notice also stipulates “all after-sales services will be delayed until May 30, 2019.” I’m assuming this means orders that have already been placed will be fulfilled.
A hotline (400-820-7708) has been provided. However, calling the number and selecting either Chinese or English options currently redirects to an extended hold on the call.
FIELDS celebrated their 10-year anniversary last week. The last post on their WeChat official account (fields_china) went out on April 8.
About Sun Art Retail
Sun Art Retail is a leading hypermarket complexes operator in China. They operate hypermarket business under two banners “Auchan” (歐尚) and “RT-Mart” (大潤發). As of 31 December 2017, Sun Art Retail had a nationwide footprint of 461 hypermarket complexes covering 226 cities across 29 provinces in China.
On 20 November 2017, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (“Alibaba Group”), Auchan Retail International S.A. and Ruentex Group announced an alliance to explore new retail opportunities in China’s food retail sector. As part of this alliance, Alibaba Group invested a total of approximately HK$22.4 billion to obtain an aggregate direct and indirect stake of approximately 36.16% in Sun Art Retail Group Limited.
Updates
A representative of FIELDS confirms that all credits will be refunded and orders that were canceled will be refunded.
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