Last week my friend persuaded me to shop in Carrefour (speak: jia le fou in Chinese). We both hate to shop at Carrefour. In fact, all my expat friends hate to go to Carrefour. But still, last week, we went there - and we were the only foreigners. Only Chinese shop here. Foreigners don't like wasting time with the long drive through traffic jam, the hassle of finding the items of your shoping list in these large two story buildings, and then end up with much more than planned. If some friends buy products from Carrefour, then online. But it is so much easier to go to Jenny Lou around the corner for the daily grocery and milk. They have everything you need, you always meet someone you know and it was even cheaper then Carrefour! - WAS! - Was cheaper!
My friend said: "Lets go to Carrefour, I am boycotting Jenny Lou. (remark: seems like "boycotting" is a new sport these days.) Jenny Lou is exaggerating with its price increases!"
It is true! It is not only the yearly 10% price inflation... many things are 20% up and even more expensive at Jenny Lou lately.
I myself had already started to buy more and more with April Gourmet. The other very friendly and well stocked little chain for foreign brands. Some items I regularly buy are 10% cheaper at April Gourmet in comparison to Jenny Lou.
And to finish the story about my latest shopping experience in Carrefour: the prices really are better now at Carrefour - but I still will go to April Gourmet.
So that day we boycotted Jenny Lou.
And now Chinese want to boycott French Carrefour because of the things that happened in Paris?
This is totally crazy, because most of the products at Carrefour are Chinese - and all workers are Chinese - I have never ever seen any French guy, otherwise I would have told them, how much I am disappointed about the Carrefour outlets in Beijing. The worst Carrefour I have seen in Asia are in Beijing. However, Chinese love to shop there.
BTW demonstrations are allowed in China - at least against French goods.
Read more
Carrefour boycott, by China.org.cn including photos
Chinese netizens urge Carrefour boycott after torch relay incident, by China View
Kitty Shelley versus France, by ESWN including translations of the Chinese Internet discussion
Photo: Boycott sign against Carrefour circulating in the Internet to organise a boycott on May 1st
3 comments:
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one confused by the boycott...who is it going to hurt more?
I rarely shopped at the Carrefour in Singapore. It was way out of the way, too big, and I could never find what I was looking for, but you're right I rarely saw foreigners shopping there.
Hi Cory,
I think 98% of the staff is Chinese and 90% of the products are made in China (as I remember from China Daily, but & might be slightly different).
"They" boycott Carrefour as they think the mother company LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) paid money to the D* L*. (As far as I know it is not proven.) And second they are against French / French products because the only scene or photo they saw about the torch issue was from Paris.
Ups, just saw my old comment: "D* L*" ... for those who wonder, I ment the Dalai Lama. Blogs are blocked in China anyway!! So why being careful by avoiding names?!
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