Like hotels, department stores in China will be classified into different grades. The three grades for department stores are Golden Tripod, Silver Tripod and Bronze Tripod. The idea of rating retail enterprises was first raised at the National Working Conference on Commercial Reform and Development recently held in Hangzhou.

According to the plan for the classification of retail enterprises announced by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the system will first be tried out in the nine cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Dalian, Nanjing, Changsha, Qingdao and Xian. MOFCOM's main reason for choosing these nine cities is that they have a good business environment, have achieved a considerable level of development in major sectors, rank among the first top few in terms of retail sales, and are either pilot cities for reform of the circulation system or provincial capitals.

The classification of department stores is based on scores: 60-70 points for bronze, 71-90 for silver, and 91-100 for gold. Stores are given scores for business area, turnover, product mix, shopping environment, management, service, credibility, corporate culture and informatisation. It is worth mentioning that while stores found to have major commodity-related incidents or serious price frauds at the time of assessment will be vetoed, creditability and service are also assigned great importance and carry 20 points each.

According to an official from the commerce bureau of Changsha, the competent authorities in pilot cities will assess their department stores in the first half of the year and report the results to MOFCOM, which will give its evaluation in terms of service, environment and credibility. Stores that are up to standard will be assessed one by one for further classification in the second half of the year.

With its strong flow of trade and commerce, Changsha has a consumer market with unique characteristics. Its total retail sales amounted to Rmb74.3 billion last year, ranking among the top 10 in the country.