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Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Chinese Crowd Stormers

The economist has gotten around to covering the Chinese phenomenon that is picking up steam whereby a group of people meetup online, collectively work out a single product they want to buy together, then head down to the store at predetermined time and place to get a group deal!

"ON AN otherwise quiet Friday afternoon in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, 500 shoppers gather outside a Gome electrical superstore in the downtown district. They arrive en masse at the designated time—June 16th at 4pm—that they had previously agreed online. Several hours later, they emerge clutching boxes, having secured 10-30% discounts on cameras, DVD players and flat-screen televisions. “It was great,” says Fairy Zhang. “We just bought an apartment and this way we can afford nice things for it.” The previous weekend, over 100 locals visited Meizhu Central, a well known furniture outlet, to haggle over the prices of kitchen cabinets and dining-room furniture."

10-30% discount is not bad eh!

Read the full article at the economist

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