Wal-Mart Restart
I just read a China Daily article that reports, among other facts, that Wal-Mart just opened a supercenter in Loudi yesterday. That’s funny, because I was at the grand opening ten months ago …
Since 1998. On WP for 865 days.
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December 13th, 2007 at 8:21 am EST
Well, that’s weired. Wal-Mart in Loudi is not a piece of news any more.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:01 pm EST
That is so exciting. You know, I never forget the time during which I had to stand outside of the counter, and let the salesperson pick up that and pass over to me when I went to high school there. Sometime, if there were more than one buyer there, it was so difficult to call the salesperson over to you. They looked like so great to you and it seemed that they were doing a big favor to you. Or they just told you they did not have the dam thing, even though you could see the dam thing inside the counter.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:55 pm EST
When things like that happened to me in China, I’d say that I had been “mei you’d” (没有). Mei you, which means “we don’t have it”, is what the salespeople would say to me, even if the item I was asking for was right there.
Eventually I stopped waiting for the salesperson to help … if someone told me “mei you”, I would just walk behind the counter and get the item myself, slap my money on the counter, then walk out of the store.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:25 pm EST
I went into a cafe in France with my sister Kate (who speaks French well). Kate said something to me in English, then she asked the employee for a couple of sandwiches. The employee told us that they were “out of bread.” As we left the cafe, Kate scoffed. ” ‘Out of bread?’ No one in France is ever out of bread.”
December 14th, 2007 at 10:28 am EST
you are great, I never thought I could have such way to deal with that. I remembered that, I felt like I was a mouse and they were cats, maybe because I was a country person.Or the money clenched in my hand was only so much, if the salesperson said that was ,,,, maybe I had to run away as soon as I could.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:34 pm EST
The nice thing about China is that salespeople are not very creative … they all seem to sell the same things. If you’re in a shop and the worker tries to cheat you, there are always a few other shops right next to it selling the exact same thing. I often made a point to walk past rude workers and buy things from the shops that were kind and friendly!
December 14th, 2007 at 1:59 pm EST
Maybe there is a process.
when I was young, I knew that the salesperson did not try to sell the items in the counter because no matter they tried or not, they would get the same salary.
After some years, the people had the permission to have their own stuff and they could sell that, then they just tried to cheat you or force you to buy as they could. From my own experience, there were no kind and friend salesperson. You just did not know the way how they cheated you. Because the money would go to their own pocket. But the stuff they owned were not so much.
During the last 10 years, Wal-mart came, I heard that the salary were not so good, I’d really like to have a look at how they act now.
December 14th, 2007 at 2:26 pm EST
Even though the salary is lower in Wal-mart, the workers there are much more friendly and helpful than workers in small shops. I think it’s because there is a higher expectation for Wal-mart … and because there are more benefits than just salary when you work there (it’s a cleaner environment, co-workers are friendlier, bosses are more fair, etc).
Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s interesting to see Western capitalism meet Chinese capitalism. Thanks for sharing those ideas!
December 19th, 2007 at 5:26 am EST
I really should tell you guys that it was a piece of news a couple of days ago. In fact, it is its second supercenter opened and its location is in Liangang which is the exact place where Lance taught and also belongs to Loudi.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:12 am EST
No way … there’s a Wal-Mart in LIANGANG?! That’s unbelievable!
Where, exactly, is it at? Near the park, the river, the new hotel, or the factory? Which bus routes is it on?
December 19th, 2007 at 9:08 pm EST
what? I thought you already knew where it is.
沃尔玛大汉店opend on2007-12-06in娄底市经济技术开发区大汉路东南侧(it is LIANGANG), here is the opening scene and the place(http://bbs.rednet.cn/a/a.asp?B=81&ID=10534482).it is full of people, people.
沃尔玛春园店opend on 2007-03-18 in娄底市底星路口春园商业步行街大厦地下一层