Lest you think that I'm roughing it here in Kunming, I am walking distance from two huge Wal-Mart-like stores. One actually is a Wal-Mart. You'd recognize the big smiley faces and the big price tag signs, but you would be surprised to find a huge produce section with live fish, and a service that will help you send a letter to the president.
The other store is called Carrefour, and I was there one recent morning to pick up school supplies. There were lines of shoppers snaking all over the second floor. My first thought was that I didn't need pens and paper bad enough to wait in this checkout line. But then I looked at their baskets, which were all empty. I followed the line to its end; it turned out there was a blowout sale on. . . EGGS! People were losing their minds loading up with eggs. If you look in the foreground of the above photo, you can see some people getting their eggs; in the background you'll see everyone else waiting. They had to wait in one line to get the eggs, another line to have them weighed and still another to check out of the store; people waited very patiently and the process seemed to be running pretty smoothly.
My first thought was, "How funny and Chinese." But then I realized I've seen New Yorkers wait for hours for a deal—Shakespeare in the Park, free cone day at Ben & Jerry's, preschool admissions. I have a feeling if Fairway was selling eggs at 10 cents a dozen, it would look a lot like Kunming Carrefour, except maybe more chaotic.
3 comments:
Great story! P.S. Carrefour is a French store I'm pretty sure, and was big in Istanbul too.
In Britain recently this type of behavior was exhibited at the opening of Kate Moss's line for TopShop. People waited in line for hours and were allowed 20 min. each to shop once they got in.
The only thing that surprises me is the fact that people stood patiently in line and there wasn't chaos. That definitely was NOT the case whenever I was near any sales during my time in Asia.
Post a Comment