"Sure, we do deliver... when we see a possible profit." I wonder if Dali beer would have been OK?Since we are on the topic of money I might as well share another story. A friend of mine went to Carrefour the other day. He wanted to buy a lot of beers as he was planning to have a party. Since he couldn’t carry everything himself he asked some shop assistants if Carrefour could deliver the beers to his home.
-How many do you want? The girls first asked.
-Many, many! The guy replied.
-Like… 50?
-More!
-OK! Both girls smiled. Then one of them remembered:
-Hey, what kind?!
-Qingdao.
-Eh…. Both girls suddenly didn’t smile anymore. Sorry, that is not OK.
-Why not?
-Ehhh….. it’s not. How about… this one?! Budweiser?
The three of them went over to the beer section. A Qingdao was 3,5 kuai and a Budweiser was more than twice the price. My friend slowly started to realized what this was all about.
-Sorry, I don’t like Budweiser beer. Is it not OK with Qingdao?
-This Qingdao? The girls pointed at a smaller, more expensive bottle version of Qingdao.
-No, that’s not the one I meant. How about the cheapest one?
-Sorry, not OK.
-Right.
So there we go. Carrefour only bothers to deliver when you buy expensive beers.
The funny part about the story? My friend actually doesn’t really care so much about the price, but her really prefers the cheapest version of Qingdao for its taste. Bummer.
This does make sense. Here in Japan shops only do free delivery when your purchase is over a certain amount. Otherwise you have to pay for the delivery.
ReplyDeleteThe Carrefour near my home (Beijing) has a sign up saying they offer free delivery above a certain price - I'm pretty sure it was 200 RMB, although their website says 500 for online shopping. Yours probably has the same system.
ReplyDeleteHe should go to any random small Chinese shop and they will deliver it for sure. Especially if he's living nearby and could become a daily customer.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest solution is always the best: just make the customer pay a delivery fee regardless of the price/brand...
ReplyDeletehahah wow, thats retarded, she couldnt have a friend bring a car, how many beers did she need?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -yeah I agree with that. It is OK to have a limit... but a brand-limit? Naaaah... Regardless if he was buying cheap or expensive beer he was gonna spend a lot.
ReplyDeletespending Kevin -Yeah I have friends in SH who get stuff delivered from Carrefour all the time.. so not sure what this was all about.
Diderik -not so many random Chinese shops around here except for convenience stores. Maybe that one works.
Alej -I am pretty sure that if he had had access to a car he wouldn't have asked for home delivery.
Anonymous -yup, that is still better than refusing!
Perhaps the 'brand limit' was translated into a purchase limit?
ReplyDeletei.e. the shop assistant mentally calculated how much the cheap beer would cost and decided it won't go over the 200RMB limit
sounds like the most logical explanation to me...