家乐福 : The 10th Circle of Hell

I helped Mike move into his new apartment on Sunday afternoon, which was an interesting adventure. It took him almost an hour and a half to exchange his travelers checks into RMB at the bank, and then the lease signing took another hour and a half. Finally he was done and I offered to go to Carrefour (家乐福 in Chinese) with him to find stuff like sheets, a pillow, soap, etc. The Carrefour is located near the hotel (and his apartment) in the big underground mall by the Sinosteel building in Zhangguancun. I had read a case in Competing Through Strategy about how Carrefour has been a huge success in China because they really cater to the Chinese market, so I was excited to see it in person. It turns out by catering to the Chinese market they have made it a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad place that is miserable.

First of all, the place is packed with so many people. Everywhere. They are pushy, shoving and in the way. Secondly, nothing is arranged in a logical manner. We found sponges, dishwashing gloves and trash bags together, but no dishwashing soap or laundry detergent. There are no staff anywhere to ask for help. The store is crowded with narrow aisles. It's also kept at a much higher ambient temperature than the rest of the mall and the outside temps. It was so miserable that Mike wanted to just leave without buying anything, but then I pointed out he'd have no toilet paper or sheets, so we waited in the line. The checkouts have 3 cashiers next to each other in a row, and each cashier has her own separate line, so it is a complete madhouse, of course, with everyone milling around confusingly. We had such an awful time in Carrefour that we stopped at Bellagio (this cute, modern Taiwanese style place nearby) to have a pick-me-up snack of passion fruit tea and mango rice balls. We found shampoo and detergent at the fake 7-11 next to Mike's apartment building, so I think I will just stick to Watson's and 7-11 from now own for toiletries and the like. Neat trivia, the detergent works for both hand wash and machine wash, I guess because not everyone has a clothes washer in their apartment. Dryers are non-existent here.

Also funny, we went out that night in Wudaokou and came back around 12:30am. I got a phone call from Mike telling me that his apartment complex locks the entrance gate with a PADLOCK at night! He had to jump the fence to get in. Talk about a fire hazard!