The past few days I have been enjoying the peace of a small town called Dali. Old Dali is population 40,000 or so and everything is within walking distance. A far cry from Shanghai with a about as many residents as the entire state of Florida. In leaving Dali I took a bus back to Kunming to avoid a $1000 US flight out of a tiny airport. The plan was to go a couple of days early to make sure there were no foul ups in catching my flight out and allow myself time to explore the city. Unfortunately my stay in Kunming was underwhelming. The night before leaving Dali my debit card was left in an ATM machine. So instead of seeing sights, securing a new card and western union funds were of a higher priority. The one thing I was able to do though, was finally scope out a Chinese Wal Mart. Though I have taken many trips to other mega stores, it was always either Century Mart or Tesco. I've been dying to see how good old Wally World stacks up to the competition and test my theory that all of the cheap stuff in Wal Marts in China is made in America.
Chinese Wal Marts are nothing like American Wal Marts. In America our Wal Marts have wide aisles and are generally quite sanitary. In China they are more condensed and not nearly as clean. I would go so far as to say they're actually dirty, worse than Albertson's or Harvey's. Slammed with people and covered in a thin layer of grime... welcome to China! What a great microcosm. An American would feel much more at home at Tesco. Another way Chinese Wal Marts are analogous to China as a whole is that they have so much going on. In a space about equal in size if not a little smaller (the building covers much less ground, but there are four floors) there is vastly more food. The potato chip aisle is mind boggling. And whereas Century Mart may carry three or four Oreo flavors, Wal Mart seemed to have all of them. Chocolate, mint, cappacino, strawberry, original... there were many more. Also, it should be noted that Chinese people are way more on top of their junk food game than Americans are. Oreos also come in wafer and straw form, both with a variety of creme filling flavors (edit - I purchased the “mint”, it has turned out to be green tea milkshake. still quite scrumptious).
Wal Marts here also carry more traditional Chinese foods than their competitors. Poultry is sold with the head still attached (and for some reason the chickens are black) and there are more eggs than you can shake a stick at. I'll assume this is just in Yunnan, but there are people dressed in exaggerated traditional local garb hawking particular sorts of good. Again to jump to a conclusion, I'm going to guess these are foods specific to the area.
Wal Mart makes up for some of it's shortcomings with more service. They offer delivery, free packaging of gifts, free parking (apparently it costs money elsewhere) among other things. They also encourage you to write the president of the company with complaints and suggestions. Borrowing from Sam's club, products are marketed more aggressively inside the store. Samples are passed out and by certain displays there will be people with megaphones extolling the virtues of Wal Mart's wares.
One area where I really have to hand it to Chinese Wal Marts is in the television section. While American Wal Marts play DVDs the store is selling, Chinese Wal Marts show pictures designed to showcase the crispness of the picture. One of the videos they play is essentially softcore porn. The women keep their clothes on, but are definitely engaging in lesbian foreplay. This is smart. When the dealership simply handed me the keys to my current car and I got to test drive it at 120 mph on the highway I subsequently purchased the vehicle. Before making a large purchase it only makes sense to be able to test it doing the job it was designed for. Roughly 50% of the population is going to be watching porn on their new flat panel TV. How many people are really going to watch “Shrek XIII”? Kudos, Chinese Wal Mart on your pragmatism. Actually, Wal Marts here are more racy in general. In the lingerie section there were a series of pictures of women not wearing bras (though they did cover areas which are traditionally off limits with their hands). In another picture a Chinese woman clearly had her breasts Photoshopped to be at least two cup sizes larger.
Chinese Wal Marts are what a Wal Mart should be. In the States Wal Marts sell us on as many pointless things as possible. We get drawn in for something we need and leave with that plus four we don't. They're large and clean (the latter depending on the area of the country). They're indicative of the current zeitgeist of entitled privilege. Here Wal Marts echo China. They do so in the relentless shopping experience itself, in the goods being sold, the manner in which they are sold and the environment as well. While Tesco and Century Mart do their best to mimick American Wal Marts (most of the time ending in an epic fail), Chinese Wal Marts do their best to echo China. Even the need to have arbitrary rules is catered to. The exit was very clearly marked... the entrance not so much.
And nothing in a Chinese Wal Mart is made in America. A good bit of the brands are American though. So, service sector.. yay!
Pictures aren't working right now, but I'll put them up later.
Chinese Wal Marts are nothing like American Wal Marts. In America our Wal Marts have wide aisles and are generally quite sanitary. In China they are more condensed and not nearly as clean. I would go so far as to say they're actually dirty, worse than Albertson's or Harvey's. Slammed with people and covered in a thin layer of grime... welcome to China! What a great microcosm. An American would feel much more at home at Tesco. Another way Chinese Wal Marts are analogous to China as a whole is that they have so much going on. In a space about equal in size if not a little smaller (the building covers much less ground, but there are four floors) there is vastly more food. The potato chip aisle is mind boggling. And whereas Century Mart may carry three or four Oreo flavors, Wal Mart seemed to have all of them. Chocolate, mint, cappacino, strawberry, original... there were many more. Also, it should be noted that Chinese people are way more on top of their junk food game than Americans are. Oreos also come in wafer and straw form, both with a variety of creme filling flavors (edit - I purchased the “mint”, it has turned out to be green tea milkshake. still quite scrumptious).
Wal Marts here also carry more traditional Chinese foods than their competitors. Poultry is sold with the head still attached (and for some reason the chickens are black) and there are more eggs than you can shake a stick at. I'll assume this is just in Yunnan, but there are people dressed in exaggerated traditional local garb hawking particular sorts of good. Again to jump to a conclusion, I'm going to guess these are foods specific to the area.
Wal Mart makes up for some of it's shortcomings with more service. They offer delivery, free packaging of gifts, free parking (apparently it costs money elsewhere) among other things. They also encourage you to write the president of the company with complaints and suggestions. Borrowing from Sam's club, products are marketed more aggressively inside the store. Samples are passed out and by certain displays there will be people with megaphones extolling the virtues of Wal Mart's wares.
One area where I really have to hand it to Chinese Wal Marts is in the television section. While American Wal Marts play DVDs the store is selling, Chinese Wal Marts show pictures designed to showcase the crispness of the picture. One of the videos they play is essentially softcore porn. The women keep their clothes on, but are definitely engaging in lesbian foreplay. This is smart. When the dealership simply handed me the keys to my current car and I got to test drive it at 120 mph on the highway I subsequently purchased the vehicle. Before making a large purchase it only makes sense to be able to test it doing the job it was designed for. Roughly 50% of the population is going to be watching porn on their new flat panel TV. How many people are really going to watch “Shrek XIII”? Kudos, Chinese Wal Mart on your pragmatism. Actually, Wal Marts here are more racy in general. In the lingerie section there were a series of pictures of women not wearing bras (though they did cover areas which are traditionally off limits with their hands). In another picture a Chinese woman clearly had her breasts Photoshopped to be at least two cup sizes larger.
Chinese Wal Marts are what a Wal Mart should be. In the States Wal Marts sell us on as many pointless things as possible. We get drawn in for something we need and leave with that plus four we don't. They're large and clean (the latter depending on the area of the country). They're indicative of the current zeitgeist of entitled privilege. Here Wal Marts echo China. They do so in the relentless shopping experience itself, in the goods being sold, the manner in which they are sold and the environment as well. While Tesco and Century Mart do their best to mimick American Wal Marts (most of the time ending in an epic fail), Chinese Wal Marts do their best to echo China. Even the need to have arbitrary rules is catered to. The exit was very clearly marked... the entrance not so much.
And nothing in a Chinese Wal Mart is made in America. A good bit of the brands are American though. So, service sector.. yay!
Pictures aren't working right now, but I'll put them up later.
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