This week I shifted my observations of rice consumption from outdoor markets to indoor supermarkets. The contrast between traditional and modern markets is deep: markets are only open in the morning, specialized vendors lining city streets, waste strewn on the ground, whereas supermarkets are large, open, clean facilities offering all clothing, household, and food needs in one quick stop.
I spent a day zipping around Harbin from one 'big box' store to another. These big box stores appear to be the wave of the future (if not the present) in Chinese cities. I covered a lot of the city. Harbin currently has 3 Wal Marts and 4 Carrefours (French chain), plus several RT Marts (Taiwanese chain). Of course, these are spread throughout the 5 major districts in the city. I have spent plenty of time in some of these box stores conducting consumer surveys, but this week I was doing an inventory of packaged rice being sold. Two noteworthy stories emerge.
1). In the US, the generic brand name of Wal-Mart products is Great Value. This label is placed on all products Wal Mart distributes. I found this same label exists on packaged bags (2.5, 5, and 10 kg) of Dongbei Dami (Northeast Rice) in Wal Marts in Harbin. Wal Mart is siphoning this northeast Chinese commodity into their marketing and packaging plan for Chinese consumers. Does this label carry greater meaning in China (than simply 'generic') because most people would consider rice bought in bins at markets 'generic.' Does the Wal Mart label carry more significance of clean and modern? Based on surveys I've done, I don't think brand names really matter to Chinese consumers. But someone at Wal Mart might be able to tell me what they hope to accomplish.
2). Most place offer bags of rice, plus rice in fancy, decorated boxes. These boxes are designed to be given as gifts and are often more expensive (there is a lot to say about the Chinese practice of giving food gifts from one place to out-of-town friends or relatives). In one of the Carrefours, I saw a fancy cylinder container of 1 kg of northeast rice. There was a story on the container about the Korean minority town from which this rice came. It was a long story and I thought it would be interesting to read and analyze. This 1 kg of rice was on a shelf where the price was marked 27 yuan. In street markets, 1 kg of high quality rice sells for about 5 yuan, 1 kg of lower quality rice sells for about 3.4 yuan. So this was expensive rice. But I decided having the container with the story on it was worth the extra money for research purposes. (I have been conditioned by my Chinese friends not to get ripped off, so sometimes its difficult for me to justify a purchase that would be expensive to Chinese people).
In the check-out line, the cashier rang up the 2 small loaves of bread I was buying (total=3 yuan) and then added the rice. The total rang up to be 101 yuan when I was expecting it to be 30 yuan!!! I think my eyes bugged out of my head. What? I asked the cashier. Apparently this rice I thought was overpriced at 27 yuan was mis-labeled and was actually priced at 98 yuan. That would be about $14 for one kilogram of rice (wgen it is usually under a dollar). The cute old Chinese couple in line behind me started laughing at me (or with me). It was a little too much for me to justify purchasing; I took my 3 yuan bread and left. Sure enough at the next Carrefour I visited, there was the same container being sold for 98 yuan. I was able to copy some of the story in my notebook. I got the important parts for now.
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2 comments:
And the worst part about the big stores is they won't bargain (in the US, there would have at least been a chance that you could get the store to give it to you for the price marked as opposed to the actual price).
I wonder if the characteristics of the $14 rice were enough to set it apart from the cheaper counterparts...
Be careful with your clipboard in walmart. There were some COA students a few years ago doing some project involving walmart. They were in the local walmart and were taking notes. I think they were looking at how many products were made in the U.S. vs elsewhere, although they might also have been talking to some of the customers. The students were then told by some walmart employee that they couldn't do what they were doing. They asked why, and were told that writing wasn't allowed. But perhaps writing is allowed in walmarts in China and not the U.S.
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