The last things the turtles see in the Wal-Mart megastore in northern Beijing are bright fluorescent lights, masked shop assistants and, if they crane their necks over the edge of their plastic container, a chalk board offering them for sale at the bargain price of 39.8 yuan (US$5.00) each.
Once that sum is paid even their shells cannot protect them. They are whisked off to the in-store slaughter counter, where their necks are cut, their blood is drained and they are bagged and tagged ready for the checkout counter.
A similar fate awaits the bass, perch and carp crammed into glass tanks, while there is equally no escape for the crayfish and shrimp that scuttle their last moments around a plastic tray half-filled with water before being scooped onto the scales.
Compared with their counterparts in Britain, Chinese shoppers are not satisfied simply pushing a trolley around a shop to buy products that are carefully packaged to look as different as possible from their origins. They want to net their own fish, grab their own turtles and chop the heads off their own dead ducks. If that means facing up to the fact that every purchase of meat or fish is an execution order, then so be it. If it's not fresh, it won't sell.
This is one of the lessons being learned by a growing number of Western supermarket chains as they surge into the fast-growing Chinese market. This week, Wal-Mart -- the world's biggest retailer -- declared its intention to lead the charge, announcing that it would hire up to 150,000 new staff in China over the next five years. The plan is the most ambitious attempt yet to convert China to Western consumer culture -- albeit with a local flavor.
"We're going to be growing in all directions," Wal-Mart Asia chief executive Joe Hatfield told Reuters news agency in predicting that his company's Chinese operation could be as big as its 3,700-store US business within 20 years.
It is one of many. Britain's Tesco and B&Q, France's Carrefour and Leroy Merlin, Germany's Metro and Tengelmann, and Japan's Ito-Yokado and Aeon have all moved into China in the past decade. Most are now expanding at the rate of 10 to 20 megastores a year. In the fast-food sector Western firms are so ubiquitous that there is even a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City -- Beijing's old imperial palace -- and KFC and McDonald's outlets beside Tiananmen Square.
It is the same in the luxury goods sector, where Prada, Louis Vuitton and Chanel are opening outlets in shopping centers across the wealthy Eastern regions. Even more spectacular is the advance of the sporting giants Nike and Adidas -- adding to their Chinese franchises at the rate of more than a store a day each as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approach.
SPECTACULAR
Like everything in China these days, the change is at a spectacular speed and on a scale the world has never seen before. It is already one of the fastest expansions in retail history, but analysts say it could get faster as international giants race for territory in a US$250 billion retail market that is growing at a double-digit pace.
"All the big players are engaged in a turf war. It is about being first and getting as much coverage in as many cities as possible," said Atiff Gill, senior manager of the Kurt Salmon Associates consultancy. "This is a period of very aggressive growth. We are bordering the top end of the curve. But there is a possibility that investment could grow even faster."
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