Beijing writer and translator Brendan O’Kane’s reaction to Buzzfeed’s “16 Items They Only Sell at Chinese Wal-Marts.” Above, Item No. 1, crocodiles.
“When I first moved to China in 2002, I got to Harbin — the city in the Northeast where I first lived — about two weeks after the first Wal-Mart opened there. I avoided it for months out of some pretense that I was having a ‘genuine China experience,’ but after a while I succumbed to the desire for breakfast cereal and cheese, and shamefacedly made my way to the Harbin Wal-Mart only to find that it was exactly the same as a regular Chinese supermarket. The only difference was that all of the employees wore nametags with their English names. I spotted a couple of ‘Happy’s’ and a couple of ‘Apple’s’ and other standard Chinese English names, and after scouring the entire supermarket for something, ANYTHING, that I might want, I got my groceries (eggs, bacon, a couple of rolls and a thing of socks) rung up by a checkout girl whose English nametag said ‘Lonely.’
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bad before or since.”
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The 16 items crack me up. The orange juice taped against cooking oil is just typical in China. Orange juice is perhaps the most popular promotional item that comes with almost any purchase: toilet paper, magazines, snacks… It’s ok if the two items don’t go together. As long as it is free, it’s a promotion.