Wal-Mart

I live near one of Beijing's biggest Wal-Mart stores. It is, like many stores, stuffed in the basement of a much bigger building, and the place is always crowded and chaotic. As such, shopping in a Beijing Wal-Mart is a claustrophobic's nightmare. I couldn't wait to buy my stuff and get out of there, but each of the checkout lanes had at least 20 people waiting in line, and it's like that...all...day...long.

The successful transplant of Wal-Mart stores is one of the biggest business success stories in modern (post '90s) China. But it wasn't always that way.

One sensation you get when you walk into a Chinese Wal-Mart is the stench of rotting meat. That's because it became necessary for Wal-Marts here to include a butcher shop, similar to the ones you would find on the street. A location where you can find a man wielding a meat cleaver, merrily chopping up fresh chunks of sheep, lamb, goat, cattle, chicken, fish, and whatever other dead animal lands in front of him. And the butcher's table would be surrounded by dozens of customers, noisily bargaining for the best cuts he had to offer. This is precisely the atmosphere that has allowed Wal-Mart to survive and prosper in China. Certainly not the imported brands of electronics, clothing, or hardware.

Legend has it that when Wal-Mart opened its first superstores in China, nobody showed up. That's because the customers were all outside the building, haggling with the butcher on the street. So the Wal-Mart bosses did the smart thing and brought the butcher inside, and all the customers followed him as if he was the Pied Piper himself.

Now, if you think you will find all of the made-in-China products in a Chinese Wal-Mart that you would find in an American Wal-Mart, think again. Practically everything sold in stores here is indeed made-in-China, but it's not the same stuff. It's generally stuff that is a lot cheaper -- and a lot lower in quality -- than anything on the Supercenter shelves in the U. S. suburbs. No one cares, because it is the best that anyone here can afford. Considering how hard life was in China only a generation ago, it is no surprise how popular the chain is.

In the U. S., many consider a Wal-Mart experience the worst, most low-rent shopping trip imaginable. But for Beijingers, it's like going to Macy's. And that's all you need to know about life in modern China.