Came across an interesting article written recently by South China Morning Post about the problems Ikea has to face in China. Shows its never easy doing business in China with the quality of consumers still unaware of basic courtesy and unfortunately doesn't know what shame is.
I post half the article -
Ikea at last cracks China market, but success has meant adapting to local ways
Furniture giant has bent over backwards to accommodate Chinese keener on sleeping than shopping, and is now seeing rapid sales growth
Sunday, 01 September, 2013, 6:10am
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Ikea's flagship mainland store - one of the world's largest - is abuzz with people. Walkways guiding visitors from one showroom to the next feel more congested than the road outside, and almost all 660 seats in the canteen are occupied. Yet the lines to the cashiers are refreshingly short - most are not here to shop.
The store is gripped by a kind of anarchy that would rarely be seen, or tolerated, in its country of origin. There are picnickers everywhere - their tea flasks and plastic bags of snacks lining the showroom tables. Young lovers pose for "selfies" in mock-up apartments they do not live in. Toddlers in split pants play on model furniture with their naked parts coming in contact with all surfaces.
On a king-size bed in the middle of the largest showroom, a little boy wakes from a nap next to his (also sleeping) grandmother. When the old woman casually helps the boy urinate into an empty water bottle, dripping liquid liberally on the grey mattress under his feet, most passers-by seem not to mind or even notice. The exception is a young woman who elbows her disinterested boyfriend: "Look, he's peeing into a bottle!"
Most endemic, however, is the sleeping. After a few, rare clear days, the city's notorious heavy smog has returned, and is made worse by a sticky, dusty heat wave striking northern China. Weeks earlier, a photo of people napping in a Shanghai shopping centre to escape the searing heat went viral, but in the capital, it is Ikea's cool, conditioned air that is salvation for tens of thousands of its inhabitants.
The bedroom and living room sections on the store's third floor are the most popular. Virtually every surface is occupied by visitors appearing very much at home. Older people read newspapers or drink tea; younger visitors cuddle or play with their phones. Most, however, are sound asleep.
On an average day, the 42,000 square metre store lets 28,000 visitors through its doors - though this day might be particularly busy. And every day, Jason Zhang, who works in the bed section, patiently wakes up about a hundred of them.
"Excuse me, you can't sleep here," he says politely but firmly, waiting for the verbal abuse that often follows as he redirects them to a designated section near the canteen. "Other customers need to try the product. The resting area is just over there."
His efforts are mostly in vain. In the bedroom section, the few customers actually interested in buying mattresses struggle to find space to try them. Almost all the beds have people sprawled on them, or tucked in under colourful duvets, their shoes kicked off on the floor. In one showroom, two women and a baby are fast asleep in a bed, with a man, presumably the father, knocked out in an armchair next to it.
"I think it's just that shopping behaviour in China is very different," says Zhang, shrugging at the mayhem around him.
I post half the article -
Ikea at last cracks China market, but success has meant adapting to local ways
Furniture giant has bent over backwards to accommodate Chinese keener on sleeping than shopping, and is now seeing rapid sales growth
Sunday, 01 September, 2013, 6:10am
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Ikea's flagship mainland store - one of the world's largest - is abuzz with people. Walkways guiding visitors from one showroom to the next feel more congested than the road outside, and almost all 660 seats in the canteen are occupied. Yet the lines to the cashiers are refreshingly short - most are not here to shop.
The store is gripped by a kind of anarchy that would rarely be seen, or tolerated, in its country of origin. There are picnickers everywhere - their tea flasks and plastic bags of snacks lining the showroom tables. Young lovers pose for "selfies" in mock-up apartments they do not live in. Toddlers in split pants play on model furniture with their naked parts coming in contact with all surfaces.
On a king-size bed in the middle of the largest showroom, a little boy wakes from a nap next to his (also sleeping) grandmother. When the old woman casually helps the boy urinate into an empty water bottle, dripping liquid liberally on the grey mattress under his feet, most passers-by seem not to mind or even notice. The exception is a young woman who elbows her disinterested boyfriend: "Look, he's peeing into a bottle!"
Most endemic, however, is the sleeping. After a few, rare clear days, the city's notorious heavy smog has returned, and is made worse by a sticky, dusty heat wave striking northern China. Weeks earlier, a photo of people napping in a Shanghai shopping centre to escape the searing heat went viral, but in the capital, it is Ikea's cool, conditioned air that is salvation for tens of thousands of its inhabitants.
The bedroom and living room sections on the store's third floor are the most popular. Virtually every surface is occupied by visitors appearing very much at home. Older people read newspapers or drink tea; younger visitors cuddle or play with their phones. Most, however, are sound asleep.
On an average day, the 42,000 square metre store lets 28,000 visitors through its doors - though this day might be particularly busy. And every day, Jason Zhang, who works in the bed section, patiently wakes up about a hundred of them.
"Excuse me, you can't sleep here," he says politely but firmly, waiting for the verbal abuse that often follows as he redirects them to a designated section near the canteen. "Other customers need to try the product. The resting area is just over there."
His efforts are mostly in vain. In the bedroom section, the few customers actually interested in buying mattresses struggle to find space to try them. Almost all the beds have people sprawled on them, or tucked in under colourful duvets, their shoes kicked off on the floor. In one showroom, two women and a baby are fast asleep in a bed, with a man, presumably the father, knocked out in an armchair next to it.
"I think it's just that shopping behaviour in China is very different," says Zhang, shrugging at the mayhem around him.
:p
