Cube shops in Hong Kong

The storekeepers generally rent a shop in a shopping centre (e.g. Causeway Place in Causeway Bay) and design the shop with cubic cupboards. They usually display their items for sale in the cubes or rent the cubes to the tenants. Tenants could rent their desired cubes and sell their items (whatever that could be accommodated in the cubes). The rents for each cube ranges from as little as HKD100 TO HKD3,000 per month, depending on the size and position of the cubes. For example, if the cube is bigger and is located at the eye-level of the glass window, it has the most expensive rent as it is the most eye-catching.

Apart from renting the cubes, some store owners also collect commissions from the cubes, the commission ranges from 10-40% of the total income of the cubes. Since there are so many cubes and it is impossible for every tenant to look after the cubes all the time, the storekeepers usually record down the products and transactions for both helping the tenants to manage their business and collecting commissions.

The items in the cubes are usually small items of cheap costs. Since the cubes are not big, small items are good for accommodation and more styles of the products could be displayed. Some store owners would reserve some cubes for selling their own products, and renting most of the cubes to tenants. It can be seen that renting the cubes to tenants is more popular to the store owners as the income from renting is more steady and profitable.

As the shopkeeper has the ultimate power to open or close the shop, the renters of the grids may not be able to get back their goods or money of rent from the shopkeeper. There are news about shopkeeper suddenly closed the shop and the grid owners had paid for six months rent and could not get back the money.

One of the main concerns is that the goods the cube shops sell may be a fake of a brand and there is quality concern. One example is color contact lenses sold in cube shops were tested and found that pigment was painted on the lenses only instead of paint under a cover. This would cause hygienic problem and were not regulated under medical equipment.

• "逾8成「大眼仔」　易甩色黏菌多". apple daily. 27 October 2013.
• "探射燈：格仔舖忽然執笠 租戶血本無歸". oriental daily.
• "hk cube shops". Archived from the original on 2014-04-13.