Archive for the ‘Consumer’ Category
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Online spending in China last year totaled RMB 59.4 billion. Of that, 43.3 billion alone was spent on Chinese online retailer Taobao.com. For comparison, Taobao points out that gross profits for international grocery chain Carrefour last year were 24.8 billion – that is, people are spending more through an online ...
Posted in Claire Li, internet, Consumer | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Anyone living in China can’t fail to have noticed the sharp price increases in recent months. Zhang Hong has written a fascinating piece for our magazine this month – link to follow - on how the rising cost of living in Chinese cities has lead to a major shortage of ...
Posted in Consumer, Matthew Plowright, economy, cib | No Comments »
Friday, March 21st, 2008
Every week, I receive at least ten junk text messages offering me mortgages, cheap air tickets, and fake graduation diploma. Others notify me that I’ve just won some award, offer to kill my enemies or sell me guns. The latest one, which I received just 30 minutes ago, concerns a ...
Posted in Claire Li, Consumer | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
There was an amusing article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that pointed out that nearly all older, prominent Chinese men seem to dye their hair black. The article also touched, very briefly, on what I thought was one interesting (although not entirely convincing) reason why:
Experts say that obsessing about ...
Posted in trends, Consumer, Eveline Chao, cib | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
Anyone who’s ever travelled with a Chinese tour group knows the drill: the coach pulls up at some ungodly hour of the morning. You stumble on board and doze off, hoping that when you wake up you will have been magically transported to the Terracotta Warriors, or the Great Wall, ...
Posted in trends, Consumer, Matthew Plowright | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Well, all this talk about the rising price of pork and eggs has finally entered my life in a tangible way - the price of stir-fried eggs 'n' tomato at the homestyle restaurant near my apartment went up 3 kuai. I'll have to order a pork dish next time to ...
Posted in Consumer, Eveline Chao, economy, cib | No Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Somewhat randomly the other day I started wondering whether Costco has any sort of presence in China. There are 5 Costco stores in Taiwan (the first one opened in 1997 in Kaohsiung and the latest just opened in November of this year, in TaiChung) and my aunts in Taiwan are ...
Posted in America, Consumer, Eveline Chao | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Why don't Chinese women use tampons? This is what crossed my mind the last time I went to Watson's, a Hong Kong-based drugstore chain (or as British co-worker Matt insists I write, a chemist) where expats in Beijing go to buy dental floss, tampons, and other things you can't find ...
Posted in marketing, America, Consumer, Eveline Chao | 3 Comments »
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
I love this article in The Science Daily: China's Demand for Recycled Wastepaper: A Blessing and a Curse for the World's Forests.
It's a perfect little microcosm of the wacky, self-sustaining/self-perpetuating system of mutually dependent relationships that is globalism. In a nutshell, China buys recycled wastepaper from the United States to ...
Posted in Consumer, environment, Eveline Chao, cib | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
Waiting patiently in line at my local supermarket in Beijing the other day – which is more than can be said for some of my fellow shoppers – I saw a glimpse of the future of Chinese retail, and it was plastic. Every single shopper in my queue paid using ...
Posted in Consumer, Matthew Plowright, cib | No Comments »
