Are your shopping experiences positive?

[hakkaboy]

I have had some dreadful shopping experiences in WalMart and Carrefour in Kunming. Probably 10,000 customers in the shop, no trolleys at time, poorly trained staff who are unwilling to show you where products are, bad product availability (eg gin but no tonic in Carrefour - without both there is no need to buy either!), and WalMart refusing to accept VISA (Carrefour accepts it), and lack of taxi availability following the shop today just before the Spring Festival. Chinese supermarkets are to me the closest it gets to hell on earth.

[adrianlondon]

Going to Sainsbury's or Tesco in the UK just before Christmas is a similar experience.

[magores]

My shoppiing experiences are limited to Beijing, but I thought I would add my thoughts anyway...

Walmart... Only time I have ever been to Walmart in my life was the store just north (more or less) of Temple of Heaven.

-Tons of people. It's Walmart. I expected this. It's China. I expected this.

-I went in looking specifically for shoes in my size (11.5 US, 47 Eur) Couldn't find any. Found a sales clerk. He spoke better English than I did Chinese. He responded they didn't have my size. I looked around a little more, he came back and said they "still didn't have" my size. I was bummed at not finding, but amused by the "still" comment.

Carrefour... Not my favorite place, but its very handy. It's a few blocks north of me towards Chaoyang Park.

-I needed mustard. I found it.

-I bought a bicycle. The clerk that helped me, walked me all the way through the store to the invoice counter, and then the actual exit.

-It's right next to the B&Q (which I love)

-Re: Gin & Tonic.... My guess is your location had both items, but they weren't put where you might expect them to be. For example... The mustard I looked for, was about 5 aisles away from the ketchup and mayonnaise.

-Oh yeah... There is always a ton of people there.

One thing that I find interesting about shopping in Beijing...

If you were to take a store from Beijing, Carrefour for example, and put it in San Francisco, for example.... Don't change the physical structure, or the layout, or the product selection at all.. As a general rule, the US version of the store would have 1/2 as many employees (or even less).

The same personnel ratio works for just about every private company I have been into... Convenience store in the US has 2 employees? Beijing store has 4 employees.

The level of helpfullness will depend on your particular experience, and the particular store, and even the particular day that you go.

The exception to this "rule" seems to be banks, the post office, etc.

Just my 2 cents, for whatever its worth. Keep in mind that I haven't been here long, so my 2 cents aren't worth much.

Magores

[skylee]

Does anyone else like gin+coke?

[geraldc]

Gin can be used in slings, added to Tom Collins mix, martinis etc

Vodka and Tonic.

It always takes a while to get used to shopping in China, find the item you want, giving the item to a shop assitant who give you a bit of paper, wandering around with bits of paper looking for where to pay, paying, getting more bits of paper and then exchanging bits of paper for the goods again.

[amego]

Singapore doesn't have Walmart...

[adrianlondon]

Singapore doesn't have Walmart...

It's not big enough

[Xiao Kui]

I was once in Kunming Walmart the day before spring festival, it was hard to even move from upstairs to downstairs. Generally avoid Carrefour and Walmart on weekends or right before a holiday. The most important thing to Chinese at holidays besides family is definitely food, and tons of it. So they go to Walmart, etc so they can stock up because it´s sold in big containers there and cheap. I generally try to go to these stores when most Chinese are at work because as a laowai teacher or student my schedule is bit more flexible. Good luck!

[hakkaboy]

Carrefour and WalMart both stock Gin, but, no, the tonic water is not several aisles down in Carrefour, but non existent. You have to buy Gin in Carrefour and Tonic Water in Walmart (which I otherwise avoid). Carrefour doesn't stock Bailey's... you get the picture. But generally Carrefour is about 1000 better than WalMart in Kunming. Less crowded, better products, more helpful staff, accepts VISA, has proper cheese etc. Wal-Mart is just simply dreadful. Yes, you are right, a US WalMart would have half the staff, but probably b e laid out more logically, so you don't need to ask for anything, and probably the staff would be able to answer simple questions. Quite simply this is much more frequently not the case in China. Try shopping at WalMart often, and then comment!! A plus is that shopping can be delivered to your flat in Kunming by 10pm on the day of purchase if over a certain amount. The shopping experience cannot be fairly compared to shopping on Christmas Eve in England. In England on Christmas Eve the product availability would be better, the shop layout would be more logical, the staff would be better trained, affiliated taxis would run from the store, all forms of cards and cheques would be accepted: the only similarity would be that the shops are packed. Today was my worst shopping experience ever in my life.

[skylee]

The shopping experience cannot be fairly compared to shopping on Christmas Eve in England. In England on Christmas Eve the product availability would be better, the shop layout would be more logical, the staff would be better trained, affiliated taxis would run from the store, all forms of cards and cheques would be accepted: the only similarity would be that the shops are packed.

And in England things are more expensive, right?

[geraldc]

A few months ago, Ikea opened a new branch in North London. It was a mini riot, people were hurt in the crush to get in, and others just abandoned their cars on the road in the rush to get into the store.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4252421.stm

Crush chaos at Ikea store opening

Several people were hurt in the crush as thousands flocked to the midnight opening of Ikea's newest store.

The company blamed the chaos, in the early hours of Thursday, on "an unforeseen volume of customers".

[td36285n]

A few months ago, Ikea opened a new branch in North London. It was a mini riot, people were hurt in the crush to get in, and others just abandoned their cars on the road in the rush to get into the store.

What has the world come to when people are crushing each other over furnitures and DVD players, as in the case of Wal-Mart's day-after-Thanksgiving Special?

[johnd]

the shop layout would be more logical

Logical for you. But most people here are not shopping for English Mustard and a G&T booze up!

[amego]

Singapore doesn't have Walmart

It's not big enough

Haha yea...probably But we do have 1 Ikea, a few Carrefours, lotsa fastfood restaurants, and many others...

Anyway when I was young I thought that "Carrefour" was pronounced "Carefor", but later others told me its "Ka-fuu".

[hakkaboy]

yes, skylee, things in England are more expensive. There is a downside to everything...

[mr.stinky]

hakkaboy, which carrefour do you patronize? i'm on the #92 busline (xuefu lu) that runs

between the downtown store and the beijinglu branch, either is convenient.

downtown has more western stuff, but northside has fewer customers. best time to shop

is on a weekend at about 10am (not including festival time, of course). typical morning

in the appliance section will have 3 or 4 customers and about a dozen salesclerks.

i think the 'watkins' on the first floor beneath downtown c'four has tonic water.

[Shadowdh]

Also in England you get no stock, or its moved about in some mad game of hunt the groceries, and the checkout lines are huge as the "better trained" staff are no where to be found... the grass is not always greener... at least at the asda down the road from us (part of your friendly Walmart family)... The Sainsburys is alot better though...

[hakkaboy]

Mr Stinky, thanks for the tip about the other Carrefour store (I think there is a 3rd somewhere in KM) and the Tonic Water in Watsons. Shadowdh: yes, it does annoy me when supermarkets regularly relocate their stock in the vain hope that they can convince me to buy things I wouldn't otherwise have noticed.