Gome Electronics
This weekend the Time 100 was posted, and among those listed as most influential in the world was the founder of Gome Electronics. The article mentions that other retailers, like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are gunning for Gome's customers. They will, however, have a great deal of catching up.
Over this long weekend we had the occasion to stumble into a Gome in Sui Wan Tou (I think that is how it is spelled in pin yin). We had just bought a computer at Sundan (another big electronics store) and needed to kill time while they reinstalled Windows (LICENSED, even) so that it was in English. After going on the 1F and the 2F (both just huge and FULL of stuff), I pointed out to Randy that the 3F was all TV's and DVD players. This we simply had to see.
I felt like a hillbilly on their first trip to the big city. I have never seen so many different varieties of televisions--flat screens, tube, plasma, LCD, you name it--in one spot. It must have amused any of the employees who might have seen this American with her mouth wide open looking around the store. Seriously, I have never seen selection and variety like this. I commented to Randy that I was impressed with merchandise, and while he started to plough through a spiel on newly affluent Chinese blah blah blah I had to interrupt him and clarified that what I really found amazing is that no where in America had I seen so many televisions in one store. They had TV sets in the 800 RMB range (less than $100) up to 20,000 RMB. At every price point there were dozens of choices. I have already been frustrated in some of the limited choices I have in the stores here for things I want, like stain remover (I had to go to four different places until I finally found some at Wal-Mart) and toys (you would think since they make them here you'd be able to buy Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder). In most situations the choices are similar to what we find back at a Circuit City, for instance, but the range of options are similar. But at Gome, I really could not get over the number of TV's I could choose from if we needed one. I mean, of all things, you know?
Over this long weekend we had the occasion to stumble into a Gome in Sui Wan Tou (I think that is how it is spelled in pin yin). We had just bought a computer at Sundan (another big electronics store) and needed to kill time while they reinstalled Windows (LICENSED, even) so that it was in English. After going on the 1F and the 2F (both just huge and FULL of stuff), I pointed out to Randy that the 3F was all TV's and DVD players. This we simply had to see.
I felt like a hillbilly on their first trip to the big city. I have never seen so many different varieties of televisions--flat screens, tube, plasma, LCD, you name it--in one spot. It must have amused any of the employees who might have seen this American with her mouth wide open looking around the store. Seriously, I have never seen selection and variety like this. I commented to Randy that I was impressed with merchandise, and while he started to plough through a spiel on newly affluent Chinese blah blah blah I had to interrupt him and clarified that what I really found amazing is that no where in America had I seen so many televisions in one store. They had TV sets in the 800 RMB range (less than $100) up to 20,000 RMB. At every price point there were dozens of choices. I have already been frustrated in some of the limited choices I have in the stores here for things I want, like stain remover (I had to go to four different places until I finally found some at Wal-Mart) and toys (you would think since they make them here you'd be able to buy Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder). In most situations the choices are similar to what we find back at a Circuit City, for instance, but the range of options are similar. But at Gome, I really could not get over the number of TV's I could choose from if we needed one. I mean, of all things, you know?
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