Shenzhen is in some senses the gateway from Hong Kong to the mainland. A booming economic hub on its own, the city has flourished once it became a special economic trade zone. Getting to Shenzhen was quite the adventure, after leaving the hotel and arriving at the airport we made it to our gate with about an hour and a half to spare, and then we waited and waited and waited. We never got a reason why but all the flights from Shanghai to Shenzhen were delayed for the day. So we had to make camp on the airport floor because there weren’t any seats open. Being delayed at the airport is never fun but I couldn’t choose a better group to be delayed with. We passed the time by napping and playing card games. Finally, after a three-hour delay, we were on our way.
Probably my favorite activity in Shenzhen was the Walmart store walk. The entire store was underground!
Walking through the store it seemed to have similar departments. There were aisles for dishwashing soap, home and beauty, meat, produce, candy (matcha flavored everything!), and frozen goods, however, there were fewer options available. There were only 3 or 4 brands of laundry soap, and each brand had 3 or 4 options so that the entire section took up about one-half of one aisle, whereas in the States laundry detergent takes up an entire aisle and sometimes more. Another difference was that the aisles themselves are narrower. In the States, the aisles are wide enough for three carts to squeeze past one another, but in China, there was room enough for two people with baskets to comfortably walk past one another.
Probably the most interesting section of the store was the meat department. American’s like their meat, and it is included in many meals. In the States, you can go to the meat counter and buy some fresh meat, or you can go to the deli and get cooked meat, you can also get some frozen meat. China, however, takes the meat section to a whole other level. The meat section had the typical frozen fish, with additions of frozen squid, octopus, etc. and there was also a section for freshly caught fish. But that is where the similarities ended. There were tanks along the back wall with live fish that the customer can “catch” and have killed, there are cured meats hanging from the wall that aren’t packaged in any way, but most surprising was the raw and unpackaged chicken and duck parts. They were out in the open only sitting on a bed of ice. The customer then can pick up tongues and bag their own meat.
In the “western world” Walmart’s competition is well known. In the states it is Target, Costco, more recently Amazon (especially with their recent purchase of Whole Foods), and in Europe, it is Aldi’s and Carrefour. In China, however, these competitors are not as clear cut. Because the competitors for Walmart in the States are well known they can be discussed at meetings with outsiders, however, because Walmart’s competitors in China are not as well-known you can’t talk about them. So at the Walmart business visit when one of the presenters went to click to the slide he had prepared on Walmart’s competition the slide wasn’t there and it was explained that it didn’t make it through the censorship process. Originally, I thought it was a government mandated thing, but Anna explained that it had to do with the less established Walmart in China.
Alison in China 