759 Store chief to launch 'traditional take on e-commerce'

The founder of the 759 Store discount chain, Coils Lam Wai-chun, plans to operate five distribution centres for his new e-commerce grocery venture, to be launched next month.

They would be in Kwai Chung, Kowloon Bay, Tseung Kwan O, Tuen Mun and Fanling, with delivery done in-house, Lam said yesterday.

"If anything happens, it's easier for customers to walk over and complain," Lam said. "We want it to be familiar faces and the customer relationship to be strong.

"It's a kind of e-commerce that I want to promote … I want to go back to that era of the 1960s and '70s [when you would] order rice or oil over the phone. It's not going to be like you young people going online and clicking to order. It's going to be a more traditional take on e-commerce."

Lam, whose ventures have expanded from electric coil manufacturing to snack shops, make-up, toys and wonton noodle shops, admitted that there were considerable challenges to doing online retailing in Hong Kong, including high labour costs, traffic concerns and training frontline staff.

"The traffic is bad … [you don't want] delivery van guys who smoke and throw their cigarette butts everywhere," Lam said.