Our focus on China brings back memories of my two weeks in China last year. Our group enjoyed many wonderful banquet meals, and I'm looking forward to this week's Chinese dinner. The International House "Chinese Culture Night" is this Wednesday, which will provide another opportunity to learn more about China and sample Chinese cuisine.
Food tells us a lot about a culture... and so do their retail stores and markets. When I travel, I always try to get away from tourist areas and visit the places where real people shop for their daily lives. How do they shop? What do they buy? How are products displayed ? How much do things cost?
Our group spent about 40 minutes inside the two-story Wal-Mart. (I could have stayed a couple of hours.) From the entrance, escalators took us to the top floor, which included clothes and housewares. The lower level was the supermarket, much of it arranged as a traditional market, including a large fresh fish market. This Wal-Mart somehow seemed much more spacious and upscale than the Wal-Marts I know at home. I was especially surprised at the number of direct salespeople demonstrating and selling small appliances.
We were there just a few weeks before the Chinese New Year, and decorations and merchandise related to the holiday season were very visible. (We were also surprised-- in mid January-- to see a large Christmas tree out front of the store.)
Take a tour of this Shenzhen Wal-Mart with me. You might get a different view of China today. Read more about Wal-Mart's expansion in China here.
And get another American shopper's perspective of a Chinese Wal-Mart: Five Reasons Why Wal-Mart in China is Way Different Than at Home.
(A topic for another post: Wal-Mart's has been in the news lately, employees arrested, and stores in Chongquing-- where our documentary is set-- temporarily closed due to problems with pork labeling.)
To move through the slide show, click on the little arrow underneath the photo on the right. Click on "Notes" to see some captions.)
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
9 comments:
Awesome pictures. Did you get to try the mystery fruit? I read through the the other links and believe that Walmart is moving in the right direction in its attempt to conquer China. People there behave different than they do here in the states. There is no one size fits all solution when operating globally and Walmart has caught on by the looks of some of its efforts to assimilate the cultural of China.
This article reminded me of a wal-mart like store called Jumbo that I shopped at while I was in Chile. It was massive and it was pretty much the only place that sold American products like BBQ sauce. One of the things I remember about purchasing a small appliance was that they actually opened the sealed product at the check out to show you all of the parts before the purchase. Although I did shop at the Jumbo for some basic needs I preferred to shop at little local markets that seemed to carry more products that are unique to Chile and the region.
Wow. That's really interesting. I guess when I think of a store going global, I think of it maintaining the same style, products, etc. but I guess that would be really ethnocentric. It was really cool to see the photos of Wal-Mart. One day, when I make my journey to China, I will definitely have to visit a Wal-Mart to get the full experience. It's neat to see that they have so many employees, but I guess that is a way to manage the ridiculous amount of people there and to give them employment. When you mentioned that there were people trying things, giving out samples, and that there were no bags at check-out, it reminded me of Sam's Club. Sam's Club provides the unique experience of getting to try samples, and they also provide no bags. So, I can kind of see the resemblance. I think it would just be an awesome experience to see a Chinese Wal-Mart.
The pictures here are amazing. Its really cool to see how a company transforms is operations to survive in a different market. You read about how companies fail if they dont change how they operate (Walmart in Germany) or how they succeed, but you rarely get to witness it. I will definitely go out of my way to check out some 'American' stores whenever I visit a foreign country just to see how it may have changed.
I, like Kathy, have also had an experience in a foreign Wal-Mart when I was in Mexico. I think it's amazing that a small company started in Bentonville, Arkansas, has gone global to the extent that it has. Here in the U.S., I view Wal-Mart as a necessary evil. I hate the atmosphere of shopping there, but I do it anyways because most of the time the prices are the cheapest. It was interesting going to the Wal-Mart in Mexico; it seemed cleaner and more high class than here in the U.S. I bet experiencing it in China was interesting too.
Cool pictures! This is interesting. Wal-mart has taken their international marketing strategy and one-up'd it from their U.S. counterpart. These make our supercenters look like nothing. It's almost like a Sears, Kohls, AND Wal-mart in one.
As reflected form the photos, the Wal-mart in China is definitely so different from the ones in America. I have never been to Wal-mart in China, but I guess they are more or less similar to the local supermarkets in Hong Kong such as Wellcome and ParkenShop. I think supermarkets can really reflect one place's culture. For instance, they food they sell and they way the put their product. This is really interesting!
I thought it was funny how much happier the employees at the Chinese Wal-mart look compared to Wal-mart employees I see in the states. I have heard that customer service is better in Asian countries. I wonder if that is why they all look happy. I thought the most interesting item was the traditional Chinese clothing. The item that I found most familiar was the giant stuffed tiger. They used to sell those at the Wal-mart in my hometown all the time. I have a former classmate who now lives in Shenzhen, and he posted pictures similar to these when he first visited the Wal-mart there. He was surprised by all of the differences as well.
The slideshow was so interesting! I loved it. The way things were packaged, the amount of them, and the organization really reminded me of my shopping in Vietnam and Cambodia. It is amazing how much stores change when going overseas, but those are the necessary steps to take when entering a foreign market. Good job Walmart!
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