Pang Donglai pays staff 70,000 yuan after customers hit and insulted them

Why it matters: Pang Donglai, a regional chain based in Henan, is known across China for unusually generous staff benefits and pay, and its internal rules are widely discussed as a model for retail management. Chinese retail workers often absorb customer anger as part of the job, so a company publicly paying staff for dignity violations and suing customers stands out. The company's founder, Yu Donglai, is a well-known figure in Chinese business circles.

Pang Donglai, a Henan-based supermarket chain, published a notice on 26 October listing three recent cases in which customers hit or insulted staff, and said five employees received a total of 70,000 yuan (about $9,900) in compensation.

Under the company's rules on violations of personal dignity, each of the five received between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan (about $1,400 to $2,800). Police issued administrative penalties to all three customers, and Pang Donglai has filed or plans to file civil lawsuits against them, the company said. Two of the customers have had their membership cancelled.

In one case on 22 August, a customer pushed past a queue-control point at a Pang Donglai store in Xinxiang and struck, shoved and put an arm around the neck of a worker who tried to stop them, according to the notice. Police fined the customer for disturbing public order.

On 23 August at a store in Xuchang, a customer slapped the head of a part-time worker checking receipts at a self-checkout, and a security guard who intervened was also pushed. Police fined the customer for intentional injury.

On 3 September, also in Xuchang, a customer who cut a checkout line insulted a cashier who asked them to queue, and a supervisor who came to help was also repeatedly insulted. Police fined the customer for insulting behaviour, and the company paid the cashier and supervisor 10,000 yuan (about $1,400) each.

Pang Donglai said the employee and supervisor in the third case also failed to take effective measures to stop the customer's behaviour and would be dealt with under company rules.

The company has paid staff for dignity violations repeatedly since 2023. A notice published in November 2025 listed 33 such cases between 1 January and 31 October 2025, with total compensation of 359,000 yuan (about $50,600).

Founder Yu Donglai has said the chain's sales in the first eight months of 2026 exceeded 19.5 billion yuan (about $2.7 billion), up 26.98% on the same period a year earlier.