![]() ![]() They call out their wares in Mandarin, proffering samples of soya-bean milk, date juice, and lychee jelly. Indeed, its familiarity makes me feel I’ve been astrally projected back to Walmart’s natal place-Bentonville, Arkansas, which the current president and CEO, Michael Duke, recently referred to as the “Lighthouse of the Ozarks.”īut the young Chinese women workers in green aprons and sanitary masks make it undeniable that we’re a long way from the Ozarks. Throngs of energetic customers push overflowing carts (fitted with data screens touting the latest bargains) making that familiar sound of wobbling rubber wheels on concrete. Just inside the doorway, a scrum of salespeople hawk everything from roasted sweet potatoes to fitness-club memberships and massage chairs. This is the Shijingshan Shanmuhui, a Sam’s Club, one of the 352 stores that Walmart now operates in 130 Chinese cities. But instead of refined scenes of aristocratic czarist life, I encounter thousands of middle-class Chinese engaging in the newest, and already the most inalienable, right in this erstwhile “People’s Republic”: shopping. Stepping into the building’s vast, windowless interior, I have the sense of entering an oversize Fabergé egg. ![]() Also see: A Map of Walmart in China From sea cucumbers in Dalian to upscale Sam's Clubs in Shanghai, Walmart stores vary from province to province. ![]()
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