Findings from Hyper-mart (Carrefour)
Before we went out to do the actual field activity, IDEO's experts had warned us about different culture and beliefs. For example, Chinese people do not like taking a photo with stranger as they are afraid that it may be something against them. They suggest us with few tips on how to get close to them. However, when we really went down there and did the job, we still faced with many difficulties. They are some examples of what we find;
1. Chinese people don't like talking to stranger.
2. They don't want anyone to take a photo of them unless you know them well.
3. They are familiar with hierarchy system of working.
4. They love doing things in their ways.
At Carrefour, we could not interview the person in charge as she would like us to send her letter in order to ask permission from her boss (in France) before giving out information about the company. Therefore, we did the observation and interviewed with customers instead. By the way, we could interview only foreigners as local people refused to let us interview them. Fortunately, we could interview a French women and a few group of Thai students.
1. Chinese people don't like talking to stranger.
2. They don't want anyone to take a photo of them unless you know them well.
3. They are familiar with hierarchy system of working.
4. They love doing things in their ways.
At Carrefour, we could not interview the person in charge as she would like us to send her letter in order to ask permission from her boss (in France) before giving out information about the company. Therefore, we did the observation and interviewed with customers instead. By the way, we could interview only foreigners as local people refused to let us interview them. Fortunately, we could interview a French women and a few group of Thai students.
From our observation, we found that Carrefour has a hygienic food handling process. Their staffs are well trained as all staffs need to wear mask, glove, and cap and use handling tools while they are working. However, Carrefour should provide more tools for customer to choose the frozen food as those frozen chicken or pork. Customer tends to use their bare hands to touch the frozen food that might be unhygienic
1. Interviewed with French woman
* She only shops at Carrefour as she trust this supermarket
* As she comes from France , she is more familiar with Carrefour
* She never goes to wet market in Shanghai
2. Interviewed with a group of Thai students
* They always shop at Carrefour as it’s more convenience for them
* They never had a bad experience about food safety at Carrefour
* They mention that Carrefour service is not good enough
3. Interviewed a Chinese friend of one of our team member
* He prefers to buy food at Carrefour
* He believes that young generation also buy food at Carrefour
* He thinks people buy food from Carrefour because it is safer than traditional market
* She only shops at Carrefour as she trust this supermarket
* As she comes from France , she is more familiar with Carrefour
* She never goes to wet market in Shanghai
2. Interviewed with a group of Thai students
* They always shop at Carrefour as it’s more convenience for them
* They never had a bad experience about food safety at Carrefour
* They mention that Carrefour service is not good enough
3. Interviewed a Chinese friend of one of our team member
* He prefers to buy food at Carrefour
* He believes that young generation also buy food at Carrefour
* He thinks people buy food from Carrefour because it is safer than traditional market
In conclusion for hyper market, the followings are what we can observed
1. People tends to think that Carrefour is a much safer place to purchase food
2. Convenience is one of the main criteria for shopping at Carrefour
3. Price is not so important to people as food safety
1. People tends to think that Carrefour is a much safer place to purchase food
2. Convenience is one of the main criteria for shopping at Carrefour
3. Price is not so important to people as food safety
Findings from Wet market.
We went to observe local Shanghai's wet market. We could say that it wasn't much different from what we expect it to be. Actually, wet market in Shanghai had quite the same with wet market in remote area of Thailand.
We saw butcher leaving pork meat on the chopping board without trying to protect from fly in the area. Even the vegetables and fruits, customers came in and picked things up to choose the best one for them. Not only they made the products dirty but they also did some damages to the product at the same time. Moreover, most of garbages are not put into bin. They are put together around some corners of the market which are used as the bin area. It's quite unhealthy for customers.
At Wet market, due to the time constraint, we only had a chance to interview with 2 Chinese people and 1 Thai woman who has been living in Shanghai around 5 years. Here are some of things we are able to pick up;
1. Interviewed with Chinese Woman
- She never goes to Carrefour
- She always come to wet market because it is very near to her house. More comfortable.
- She never have bad experience from wet market. So she doesn't have any motivation to visit other places which she is not familiar with.
2. Interviewed with an Old Chinese Woman
- She believes that vegetables at Carrefour are not tasty.
- She used to have bad experience about customer service at Carrefour after that she stopped to visit Carrefour.
3. Interviewed with Thai Woman
- She normally buys fresh meat and vegetable at wet market while buys commodity products at Carrefour.
- Vegetables at Carrefour have long shelf life so vegetables are not fresh sometimes.
- From her observation, new lot comes on Tuesday.
- In general, Carrefour looks more clean and hygiene. By the way, she used to see that staff prepare and cut meat on the floor.
In conclusion for Chinese's wet market, the followings are what we can observed;
- Chinese people don't care much about hygiene of the market.
- They tend to visit places they always visit since their childhood and it has become their habit.
- Location of the market is much more important than the price for local people. They are happier to visit the market which is near their home.
- Not all of Chinese have good attitude toward foreign brands.
- It will take some time to change Chinese's lifestyle.
Here are some of business opportunities we have found:
- Design layout of the market for better water flowing and cleaning. It should be able to protect bacteria or pests in some extent.
- Develop new equipments for keep food fresh and clean as long as possible.
- Develop new construction material. (e.g. anti-bacteria tile, nano-coated knife)
- Develop better inventory system. (e.g. better system to check expired product)
