Hong Kong's pharmacies seek cure for high rents and fewer customers

It is a winter in the roasting summer for many pharmacies in Hong Kong, a favourite destination of mainland visitors until a tourism and retail downturn arrived as rents soared.

Fu Hong, a pharmacy in the heart of Causeway Bay, has seen business tumble by 50 per cent so far this year from the same period last year, according to shop assistant, Moses Lin.

"The rent is always high. Though we asked for lower rent, the landlord did not care at all," the owner of another Chinese medicine store in Pennington Street, Causeway Bay, told the . "We are not earning too much, but we tried to offer discounts to our customers considering different products, just in order to keep the business going."

He said the shop did not sell baby formula milk, popular among mainland customers, and his business mainly served locals. Even so, he still expected a year-on-year decline of 20 per cent in sales this year.

He blamed poor sales on stock market volatility and tightening of the scheme under which mainland visitors cross the border without joining tour groups.

In the first half of this year, the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong grew just 4.7 per cent to 22.84 million, compared with double-digit growth in the past few years, according to the Tourism Board. Mainlanders are the largest group of visitors to Hong Kong, accounting for about 76 per cent of the city's total.