Reprinted from NetEase News: http://dy.163.com/v2/article/detail/ENUM741J05148UNS.htmlhtml
It is obvious that after three days in mainland China, Costco, which is known for its good shopping experience, has undergone some changes. I have also witnessed the entire process of everyone entering the supermarket from decent and exquisiteness to "fighting".
text | sleeper
editing | Jinza
operation | Shiwanjia
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To be honest, the Daily Character Editorial Department asked me to visit Costco this Saturday, but I refused in my heart.
Costco, a Chinese name Kaishike, is the largest chain member-based storage supermarket in the United States. On Tuesday, Costco's first offline store entered mainland China to open. Three days before opening, this store in Shanghai has been on the headlines because it was too popular, restricted in flows, and suspended business.
A public account named "Penguin Eating and Drinking Guide" described: The security guard held a sign on the roadside near the mall, "It takes 3 hours to park and 2 hours to queue up to pay the bill"; when there were 3 kilometers left from Costco, the elevated road was blocked, and the driver took us to a bend from the side and let us get out of the farmland with about 1.5 kilometers left. It was twelve o'clock noon, and we walked to Costco under the scorching sun.
Times Weekly reporter visited the store on the first day, saying that he "almost suffered a trampling". Huxiu's reporter was even more fun. The title of their article was "I went to Costco in the Magic City for you, and I almost died there". In a subtitle called "Disaster-level Pass Experience", they talked with the polite driver and the polite driver all the topics they could talk about, but it was still a traffic jam. Finally, the master cursed in Shanghai dialect regardless of his demeanor, and then asked, "Why do you take a detour of 10 kilometers before walking over?" Before the supermarket opened at
9 o'clock, customers could not wait to rush in. Picture / Network
This is the case on the working day, will the weekend be even more exaggerated? To be on the safe side, I went to the spot on Friday night in advance. The security guard at the door said that three days after opening, there were no Hermes platinum bags worth 103,699 yuan, and there were no "flash sale products" like "Feitian Moutai" priced at 1,498 yuan. There was no need to queue all night, and you could enter the supermarket first as long as you arrived at around 6 o'clock.
At 6:30 in the morning, when I arrived at Costco, there were nearly 100 people queuing up in front of me. Most of them came to visit the store for the first time after reading the news. "I heard it was very cheap, so I wanted to come and have a look." Aunt Xu, who got up at 4:30, said that if it weren't for the hot news, she wouldn't have known that there was a new supermarket here. "Walmart is old and this supermarket is very fashionable."
To enter Costco to shop, you need to apply for a membership card first. Everyone’s news is very effective, so I spent 299 yuan online in advance to complete it. Some people came by car, some people came by electric bikes, carrying a few slices of toast and a pot of thick tea, and everyone leaned on the railings and waited.
Before seven o'clock, the team started to move, walked along the stairs to the parking lot on the 3rd floor, and entered the parking lot, and the crowd was a little excited - just pass through a door and you can go downstairs and enter the supermarket.
Costco's business hours are 9 o'clock. When this door opens, we spent nearly 2 hours. The autumn morning should have been a bit chilly. There were too many people, the space was cramped, and sweat came out. A Shanghai aunt took out the fan she prepared early from her shopping bag.
More and more people flock to the parking lot on the third floor, and the crowd was divided into teams about 100 meters long, shooting videos, making phone calls, and greeting friends, and "buzzing" like bees. The girl in front gradually couldn't stand and leaned on her boyfriend: "I'm going to vomit blood. I'm not going to a hypermarket, but Disney."
Finally, as the door was about to open, the security guard picked up the speaker and kept repeating: There is no Moutai, no Moutai, no Moutai, no Moutai, no Moutai, everyone should not run, walk slowly, don't run, walk slowly. There were also seven big words on the iron door that everyone had to pass by: Feitian Moutai has been sold out.
The staff held a sign: Feitian Moutai was sold out. Picture / Sleeper
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If Costco in Shanghai lined up like Disney or Universal Studios, it felt a bit like IKEA after entering. The store is a large warehouse with plenty of air conditioners and goods are placed on large shelves.Not only are there fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, seafood, flowers, wine, and furniture, but there are also tire departments, ophthalmology clinics, and photo washing shops near the cash register.
This is a very safe place. There is a joke that jokes like this: If a zombie attacks, you must hide in Costco, with a solid cement wall, enough food and daily necessities that have been used for several years. The most important thing is that zombies will definitely not enter Costco's door, because zombies do not have a membership card.
Different styles of membership cards are being sold. Picture / Visual China
When you walk into Costco, you will instantly understand why it is called "XXXXL Supermarket". Everything here is very big. A bear doll that is more than two meters tall. The shopping cart is suitable for two people to push. You can lie down a first-grade child. You can buy a battery of 4 to sell, which is 48 sections. You can buy soap for 8 yuan. Any cake is as big as a washbasin. A fist-sized meal bag, a bag of 36.
Although the security guard has repeatedly said that without Feitian Moutai, there are still a steady stream of people entering the wine sales area. A staff member named Tony stood there helplessly, holding a sign with red letters on white background, which read: Feitian Moutai sold out.
I don’t know whether it is a weekend or a summer vacation. Today, Costco’s customers mostly come out to shop in families. The common combination is a family of three, or a family of five with two elderly people. You can see all kinds of human cubs in the shopping cart, clamoring to eat roast chicken, playing with packaging bags, asking for toys, watching lobsters, and some children are too cold, so their families simply buy a blanket and wrap it up and put it in the shopping cart.
All the whole morning, I met many enthusiastic customers, some who came over, some who came over in a wheelchair, and a novice mother who was holding a two-month-old baby in line to buy roast chicken.
You can see people who open the mobile phone calculator everywhere. They gathered together in groups of three or three, one read the numbers, and the other calculated the average price. After calculating, it was found that 28 croquettes were 42.9 yuan, each of which was 50 cents. You can save money by buying them. Two boxes of 12 maifen, a total of 59.9 yuan, only 5 yuan per yuan. "It's really cheap."
The popular products that can be seen in almost every shopping cart are: whole roasted chicken for 37.9 yuan, 5 super large Peruvian avocados for 39.9 yuan, 28 mini cream croquettes for 42.9 yuan, 129.9 yuan a can of corkland nuts, and neatly arranged beef. Most of these beefs come from Australia, and the average slice of sirloin steak is less than 40 yuan.
I talked with a Costco employee who is from Taiwan, and he told me that meat is Costco’s ace product and is also a very differentiated product. Unlike potato chips, Coke, you can buy anywhere. If you do well, this type of product can increase customer stickiness.
"Why do you feel that there are many Taiwanese accent staff in the store?" I threw the doubts I had wandered around for a whole morning to him.
"Because Costco already has 15 stores in Taiwan and has more experience in providing Chinese services, this time I sent many Taiwanese employees to support the new stores in Shanghai." Some stayed for a week, some would have to stay for several months. This is why, you can always hear "careful roar" dragging the long tail sound here, "Please let's roar".
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is obvious. Three days after coming to mainland China, Costco has undergone some changes. The Feitian Moutai, which was priced at 1,498 yuan per bottle three days before the opening of
, is gone, and the price is one yuan lower than the retail guide price of Kweichow Moutai manufacturers; the two bottles of flavored fully refrigerated milk, which was originally priced at 32.9 yuan, has now been adjusted to 53.9 yuan; the special wine in Shuijingfang has been sold out, and Wuliangye, which was originally sold at 919 yuan, has also been adjusted to 1,069 yuan - many things that have been stolen have been removed or the price has been adjusted, and the discount is no longer as crazy as before. On the first day of
, 1,200 parking spaces were full, and 1,500 carts were not enough. The customers waiting for payment at the cashier were lined up from the checkout counter to the other end of the mall hundreds of meters away. The staff said, "I can't even put my feet down." Costco's official APP released information that afternoon that day, but today, the people in the mall are no longer as crowded as before.
August 27, customers who rushed to buy meat in the frozen food area.Photo / Visual China
A netizen named "Chang Yige" on Zhihu once shared his shopping experience of visiting Costco in the United States. In the United States, there are many "poor ghosts, drunks, and wanderers" in Walmart. Some people even use floor shops in stores, but Costco does not, because they need to pay membership fees. You cannot enter the store or shop without a membership card. The shopping experience is good.
Several stories that people talk about are that a foreign netizen once bought a Christmas tree at Costco. After Christmas, the Christmas tree died and Costco refunded it. Even the cookies that have been bitten can be refunded without reason. Membership card can also be cancelled twice and the membership fee is fully refunded.
But today I asked many customers, and they showed obvious disappointment with Costco. The aunt who was dragging the small tow truck to buy groceries was not satisfied, "It's so good on the Internet. I came here for two hours and lined up for an hour or two, which was not worth it at all." She settled the score for me and took bus No. 197, and the round trip cost was more than ten yuan, so it was better to buy things in the supermarket near my home. After wandering around for a morning, she pulled the grocery-buying trailer and left without buying a single item.
crowding makes people feel undecent. A young couple told me that when I came to visit Costco, I thought it was "good grade", but the child kept crying, "The cost is too high, I won't come next time."
big bag of bread comparable to the shape of a child. Picture/Sleeper
Today, I witnessed the whole process from decent to giving up. As soon as we entered, everyone was still so exquisite. I was so tired that I leaned on the sofa and when I got up, I didn’t forget to put the dust cushion neatly.
Three hours passed, and more and more people were coming, and everyone was tired and hungry. The dining area outside the checkout counter was crowded with people, and people were eating pizza around the trash can. I witnessed two small friction scenes. Someone's croissant bread was stolen, and arguing, and was pulled away by the staff. Another young lady was bleeding from nose because of a shopping cart. She covered her nose and shouted, "Don't let him run away, adjust the surveillance, I want to call the police."
No wonder, at the exit of the supermarket, the membership card refund site, the team for the membership card refund was very long, there were too many people, and the staff had not had lunch at 2 o'clock. I, a young man from the empty nest who hadn't bought anything for a day, also returned the membership card in dismay. After all, the only croissant I want to buy, one meal at a time, is enough for me to eat for a whole week.
August 29, some goods on the shelves in Costco supermarkets have been sold out. Picture/Visual China
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