Buying Electronic Goods in China
I thought I had finished writing critical appraising articles about China but there is one thing I rediscovered amongst my notes today that I will write because it holds an important caution for tourist thinking of buying electronic goods there and to any young student of mine who might one day think of starting a business in selling electronic goods. Don’t do it this way guys. It is really well known that one should never handle electronic circuits with uncovered hands or fingers. Those circuits are etched so finely that just a trace of oil from the hands can destroy the circuit or just a tiny spark of static electricity can wipe portions of memory, again rendering the circuit useless.
In Wuhan I had two experiences of witnessing shop assistants demonstrating ignorance or blithe disregard of those two essential pieces of knowledge. The first was when I went to buy an auxiliary hard drive for my computer. It was one of those little ones that fit in a small case and connect to the computer through a USB port. The drive came separately from the case and had to be fitted in and the sales assistant knew it was good service for him to put them together for me. I watched horrified as he put his hands all over the circuits on the drive and I had to complain to his boss. Fortunately the boss knew some English and together with my rudimentary Chinese we soon understood each other and he replaced the drive with another, and took great care not to handle the sensitive parts.
Not long after that I went looking to an electronic sales centre for additional RAM for my laptop and rejected stall after stall as I looked at memory sticks lying exposed on the counters and assistants handling the memory sticks with their fingers and ensuring that they would not last long. At last I was relieved to find a shop staffed by a person who obviously knew his work and handled each electronic product carefully by its edges, avoiding contact with the vulnerable circuits.
To Westerners looking forward to shopping in China I tell you that many Chinese shopkeepers do not know much at all about the products they sell. Their job is to sell and to do that they memorise the blurb on the packages and the manufacturers leaflets. They have little understanding of the functions of devices they have in stock and if it is not in their stock they will never have heard of it. The concept of keeping up with the literature has never entered their minds and is certainly not encouraged by the shop bosses. Rule through keeping the peasants ignorant was a common power ploy in Chinese history and perhaps most bosses use it to this day. This disadvantages any customer who wants real information also,of course.
After a few years of experiences of shopping in this kind of environment I found it almost exhilarating when I discovered a shop assistant who had knowledge of his or her product or even the stock she carried, without having to consult senior staff or a book. I remember one charming girl in a cellphone shop who was able to answer questions I put to her and I took two friends there to buy their phones. It was appropriate and a pleasure to praise her for her knowledge and tell her she was exceptional as a shop assistant because of it.
To my Chinese friends, if you are ever in the position of selling make it one of your interests in life to know your field. Find out everything about the rival products and be able to tell the customer about new models that are arriving next week or even in six months time. Then also get to know the products so well you can tell the customers the advantage of one over the other and, with cellphones, what services they can connect to, who will provide the services and at what cost. If you are clear, informed and honest and want the customer’s satisfaction instead of a one time profit you will get repeat business. This stuff is so rare in China, well, Wuhan at least, that you will soon rise above your competitors.