Customers shop at a supermarket on Jan 26, 2015. [Photo/IC]

1990s: Supermarkets and department stores

From the 1990s, Chinese people first got familiar with supermarkets and started buying their daily necessities there. Unlike traditional stores, supermarkets allow customers to select from a dazzling array of commodities at cheaper prices in a better environment. Supermarkets, together with department stores, dominated the market of daily supplies for many years until online purchases took over.

Seventy-six-year-old farmer Bi Cheng carefully checks the quality of a tape recorder before deciding to buy it in his village in Anqiu county of Shandong province. Photo taken on Jan 14, 1991. [Photo/China Daily]