A stampede at a Chongqing Carrefour led China to ban time-limited sales promotion. When Carrefour decided to cut the price of its vegetable oil from 51.4 yuan to 39.9 yuan for a limited time only, the shopping spree became a stampede that resulted in 3 dead, 31 injured.
This comes at a time when, as mentioned in ealier blog posts, inflation is at record levels thanks to rising pork and oil prices. Also, the stampede appears not to be an independent event: public disturbances are commonplace during times of discount promotions across the country. Therefore, to stop further accidents from occuring, Beijing has decided to order an overhaul of safety requirements in shops and restrict the use of price and time sensitive promotion to attract consumers.
Yet, will this do? There might be a greater underlying cause of the stampedes.
DanWei mentions two reasons as to why stampedes are happening all over the country over discounted products: 1. "lower income populations in urban society do not have enough protection", and 2. "merchants have an insufficient understanding of 'China's national conditions'". What is meant by this is that those living in the lower tiers of society are investing a full force of human capital into "holding out the line" for a discount, whatever it may be, because any sort of a price cut on their daily necessities is in effect a type of earning. The government does not subsidise urban dwellers as it does farmers, hence the pension system is geared towards a potential rush for quick money deals. But even so, a stampede would not occur unless there existed a propensity for disorder.
This comes to the second point. DanWei further mentioned that "administration and service in some regional governments is slow and inefficient." Local governments are pretty slow and inefficient to construct social order, especially involving those of and within businesses, but good at collecting fees. There must be greater stress on social responsibilities even in times of rising prices and pressure on the average low income earner. One must learn that 11 yuan may be a sweet deal, but not something to disrespect one's neighbours over or even losing a life over.
What do you think?
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