Home improvement stores such as Kingfisher and Home Depot, which has also expanded aggressively in China, have been hurt by a global property market slump.

Kingfisher expects more store closures in China, a sharp turnaround from mid-2007, when B&Q China sales growth was humming along at over 40 percent and it had plans to open 8-12 stores annually to over 130 locations.

Still, even during the best of times, China only accounted for a small fraction of total sales for the big global retailers.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is shifting its focus from mature markets to countries like Mexico, China and Brazil. But China accounts for just over 100 stores from a global stable of some 7,200 Wal-Mart facilities.

Other niche players such as coffee shop chain Starbucks, which is closing stores in its home US market, will continue to expand because their penetration in China and other emerging markets is still at a relatively early stage.

Consumer confidence key

Three fifths of consumers in major Chinese cities expect to spend less this year on luxury goods, branded apparel and entertainment, according to consultancy Data Driven Marketing Asia. And the outlook is not likely to improve any time soon.

US retail sales fell a steep 2.7 percent in December 2008, signaling a sharper economic contraction than had been thought.

That is bad news for China as the United States is its single largest export market. Analysts forecast the Chinese economy could grow 8 percent this year, a level widely regarded as a minimum to absorb millions of new job seekers.

High-flying Chinese consumers had once snapped up luxury cars at a record pace, but the global downturn has exposed a fragile spending class that must increasingly plan and pay for its own healthcare, education and retirement.

"Quite frankly, I'm not particularly thrilled with (China's) policy recipe," Stephen Roach, Asia chairman for Morgan Stanley, told a conference in Beijing last month. "China needs to shift its growth dynamic away from investment and exports ... and increase consumption."

China's household consumption in 2007 made up just 35.3 percent of economic output, a record low for a major country in peacetime. In the 1980s, it was over 50 percent, versus 72 percent in the United States.

The reluctance to buy is evident at Solana, one of Beijing's newest mega-malls with over 200 stores and vendors, but where spending customers are sparse on weekdays and many stalls are still waiting for tenants.

"You can see business is not good, how can it be good?" said a sales clerk at an up-scale clothing boutique, gesturing at an empty pedestrian walkway.