Shopping can be an adventure in China
To the editor:
Found something you really want? Need to buy that sack of food? It’s so simple. Pick it up; head to the cash register and pass the impulse bins; plunk down your prize; pull out your wallet while the clerk’s fingers dance over the keys. It is so simple. You can get used to that convenience. Here in China it is a different adventure entirely.
If you want to see a transitional economy at work this is heaven sent. There are the street vendors operating with a pouch of bills and coins. There are the simple grocery stores with small, relatively simple cash registers. There are the department stores with cashier stations and then there are the newest outside stores with large ranks of cash registers. All designed to part you from your money. As with most issues the image seen is not the image in actual practice.
Shopping is an art form here. From the moment you set out to get the day’s vittles to the moment you return home, the mind is going to be challenged. Most of the transactions are still done in cash. Here in the Guangzhou region there are relatively few coins for the Jiao (Jow) these are the nickels and pennies of the currency. There are coins for these amounts and in a city like Shanghai it is rare to get a paper jiao. In Guangzhou it is the opposite. So I have a sack with lots and lots of small bills, very small bills.
If you go to one of the larger stores you encounter the cashier system. I had to buy some ink for my printer the other day. I went to one of the big mega-plex computer stores that are common. To curtail shoplifting the stores do not put many of their small goods on the rack. What is done is to take an empty box of the product hang it on a rack and put this out on the shelf. When you find what you want you signal to a clerk and he picks up the selection and takes you over to the first purchase station. Here, a slip of paper is filled out with all the particulars about the item you want. This is done in duplicate. Then you are given a slip that you take to the cashier in another part of the store. The cashier puts the information into the computer and then prints out another receipt which is given back. You take this new slip of paper to the clerk at the product station.
This clerk then takes you and the slip of paper to a small little doorway in the back of the store. Handing the paper to the clerk behind the counter the first clerk now waits with you as the stockroom clerk rummages through the stock and finds your product. When found, the precious jewel is then presented to the first clerk who then presents it to you.
Your wallet is missing a few bills and yet is not empty. You now have three pieces of paper. One, the order slip; two, the payment slip; and three, the stock slip all of which are different sizes and types of paper. tissue paper from the order desk, thermal paper from the payment desk, and, rolled paper similar to our receipt paper.
But you are not done yet. If you want to be reimbursed or you need to prove that you actually purchased the product you need to go to the service desk where the clerks will write out an official receipt complete with tax stamp from the municipality. There, finally. A ten dollar purchase and four pieces of paper to show for it. My wallet is getting thicker while my money is disappearing.
Orpheus Allison, MLA
Guang Zhou, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
