Travel China and Beyond

Austin American Statesman on China Home Improvement Retailers

The Austin Texas paper (Austin American Statesman) published a rather strange article in its December 31st issue - (Home improvement, Chinese style Growing incomes and construction boom lure U.S. chains)

The reason I say that the article is rather strangely titled is that in the printed version of the paper it is actually written as US chains moving into China...  However, reading through the article the author talks primarily about retailers like IKEA (not a US one), B&Q (also not a US one).  For all of us who have spent significant amount of time in China in the last couple of years, this is rather strange — although B&Q looks very much like Home Depot (in terms of color schemes in the stores), the actual Home Depot chain (a US one) is essentially non-existent in China…

The second problem with the article is that it refers to the thin margins the retailers operate with in China and sort of suggest that those low margins are due to low prices in the stores.  Well, I have recently shopped in both IKEA in Beijing and in IKEA in Austin and prices in both locations are very similar.  A floor lamp my wife had bought in IKEA Beijing carried the same price in IKEA Austin (bought it in the Spring in Beijing and in December in Austin)…..

I can only conclude that the journalists writing these types of articles have either:

a.  not actually visited the area they write about (I wonder if the guy who wrote the Austin American article has been in IKEA in Beijing)

or

b. not paying too much attention to detail — i.e. Home Depot is not yet in China (they are developing their entry strategy, but IKEA and B&Q are the main retailers now)

In today’s world of blogs and Internet I would recommend to journalists to get in touch with folks who live at the locations they write about via the numerous blogs and Web sites and check facts, get better up to date information.  I encourage more writing about every day life in China — that provides more realistic view of the country to people / readers back in the States, but lets make it more accurate.