I heard a report on NPR this afternoon about mass group shopping in Beijing, China. Apparently, an internet-based organization was established to maximize consumer purchasing power. Their motto is "more people, more cheaper". The idea is to bus hundreds of shoppers (600) into malls that are willing to negotiate the best discounts. The crowd was visiting a furniture store and was negotiating a 45% discount. Most of us would be thrilled with such a discount, but the group complained it was too low.
Ironically, a popular communist song was playing to motivate the shoppers who were flexing their capitalist might! The lyrics bellowed that "unity is power". Maybe it should have boasted that capitalism is supreme and consumer demand wins in the end.
A shopper stated that he longed for the large discount stores found in America such as Walmart. Uggh! He distrusted internet shopping and preferred American companies over Chinese stores. I cringed at the thought of a Walmart in the Forbidden City.
Ana[Edit by="amitchell on May 15, 10:01:17 PM"][/Edit]
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I am interested in seeing the article. If you have it saved as a word document, you can easily attach it to your post. It's similar to attaching a document to an email. Look at the "Attachment" box below and click on the browse to pull up your directory.