Coronavirus Wipes Out a $140 Billion Spending Week in China
- Travel bans take toll on lunar New Year consumer spending
- Movie releases get canceled; hotels and restaurants close
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past stores on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
This should be a busy season for Yvonne Ma, operator of a wine and spirits distributor in Foshan, a city in China’s Guangdong Province. In the days after the lunar New Year, customers usually stock up on Kweichow Moutai Co.’s fiery grain alcohol and LVMH’s Hennessy XO Cognac for post-holiday celebrations with friends, colleagues and family members.
Few consumers are in the mood to toast the arrival of the Year of the Rat as the coronavirus epidemic spreads through China. Since she reopened her shop on the fourth day of the holiday, Ma’s sales have collapsed.