Metro China, a division of the German trading giant, Metro AG, has lost millions of yuan each year in the mainland because the firm claims it has fallen foul of purchasing agents on the mainland.
They have shied away from the chain store because Metro says it has not complied with their 'traditional way of doing business' asking for kickbacks and falsified receipts.
Metro's sophisticated inventory system and machine-generated receipts makes falsification difficult.
Metro China public relations manager, Huang Zhongjie, estimated that the firm's four Shanghai chain stores lost at least 30 million yuan (about US$3.68 million) in sales a year just because government and company purchasing agents had switched large orders to firms where they could continue their illegal practices.
It is not uncommon in China for the purchasing agent of a large unit or institution to get both a kickback and a doctored receipt so that some items for personal use can be thrown in with the larger purchase at the unit's expense.
Purchasing agents, especially those from state-owned companies or other publicly owned entities, often go where they can raise personal aggrandisement to its highest level in the process of shopping for the unit.
These agents sometimes rake in thousands or even millions of yuan through these under-the-table deals with wholesalers or retailers, according to Li Baoping, chief executive of Shanghai Beite Education and Sci-tech.