MARTIN SLOANE | Supermarket Shopper Shopping in Beijing had a familiar ring

What would it be like if you had to do your supermarket shopping in China? I recently visited supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai, and in the northwestern part of Beijing, an area that includes several universities, an English-speaking neighbor suggested that I shop at the nearby Chengxiang warehouse supermarket.
Before leaving, I remembered to ask her how to find grocery coupons. "What are grocery coupons," she asked. After I explained, she told me there are local merchant discount coupons in Beijing, but no coupons for groceries.
The Chengxiang supermarket is located on a busy street in a four-story building. At the store entrance, I found hand baskets that fit into small rolling carts. I looked around for the week's advertising circular, and there it was. No coupons, but the full color circular had dozens of sale items.
Where's the beef?
On the first floor I walked over to the meat cases, saw the beef and quickly found ground beef in a familiar plastic tray. The label noted the type of meat in Chinese. I recognized the unit price, the weight in kilograms and the price of that package. And, of course, a bar code. It seems that a bar code is a bar code, whether in Syracuse or Shanghai.
I passed a big aisle display of what looked like Sprite soda with an advertising banner showing prizes such as watches and electronics in a sweepstakes. In the dairy cases, most milk was packed in flat plastic pouches. The eggs looked smaller than the large size I buy in the United States.
Then it was time to shop for groceries on the second floor. I grabbed my hand basket, abandoned the cart and took the escalator. Carts waited for me at the top. On my right was the bakery and layer cakes decorated with zodiac signs. (I later learned my sign's cake brings good luck.) Close by were shelves with several dozen types of bread.
In the center of the second floor were the grocery aisles. I reached for the advertising circular and realized very few of the items can be identified, because the brands are written in Chinese. Most of the products were packed in plastic bags and pouches, with few cardboard packages. Seeing the contents of many of the bags was helpful. When my neighbor told me about the supermarket, she explained they were becoming popular because of the selection and low prices. As I walked through the aisles, I saw big sale price signs on almost every shelf. Like U.S. supermarkets, the ends of the aisles attract special attention. At the end of one aisle was a big display of cooking oil in plastic bottles and the sign said "Sale" -- spelled out in English! I found another end of aisle display of dried mushrooms wrapped together with a free package of noodles. A manufacturer representative stood by the display and asked shoppers to try a package.
Tissue issue
In the paper products section, one of the interesting products was bathroom tissue. Rolls of tissue were squeezed into a package so the holes were compressed. A package of 60 compressed rolls sold for about $2.25.
The third floor of the Chengxiang market offers housewares, and the top floor has a selection of inexpensive clothing. Back down on the ground floor with my hand basket, I looked at the 16 checkout counters and tried to guess which one would get me out of the store fastest. The cashier smiled, scanned my purchases and packed them in plastic shopping bags. With a loaded plastic bag hanging from each hand, I walked home realizing I would probably be back tomorrow. It was an adventure, and I learned a lot (at least I know my family and I wouldn't starve). Not only that, there were some great buys.
United Feature Syndicate