8.23.2012

Featuring Your Local Qingdao Walmart


Thought you all might be interested in some of the sights that can be found at a Chinese Walmart.
You know how they have those terrible Walmart Bingo boards/Checklists? You guys know what I'm talking about. If not, it's a game that you can play while in Walmart. Every time you see something/someone that is mentioned on the list you check it off. View below: (Note-I didn't make this... I know it's terrible.) 

Now honestly, I haven't actually been any of these particular stereotypes at Walmart, but through high school and early college I am quite positive I fit into someones Walmart Bingo. I.e. Highschooler running the aisles of walmart, playing with bouncy balls at 3 am, reading magazines on the floor in the magazine section, wearing pajamas, and so on. Yes, I did do all of those things. And I've even done something worse... let's just say when I was 18 my stomach was reallllly hurting in the art aisle and, well.. things just kind of came out.... Yep, that's right. I pooped my pants at 18 at Walmart. Awesome... Please don't ask me for details. ;) But I mean, isn't that one of the beauties of Walmart? It's one of the only places, outside your home, you can wear your pajamas and not feel judged. You, truly can, go there with rollers in your hair, or a mud mask on your face, and kind of, fit in. 

In China there's a different kind of check list of things to look for. Here's a few glimpses. :)
 3 floors with escalators, obviously.
 Convient shopping for customers bored on the escalator.

 Tables upon tables of dried seafood.
 Heaps and heaps of Chinese cakes.
 Donkey meat.
 Entire aisles dedicated to soy sauce and oyster sauce.
Entire aisles dedicated to ramen.
 Entire aisles dedicated to dried mushrooms.
 Great Value Black Fungus.It's best to look for bargains when shopping for your black fungus.
 Mounds of black fungus and people sorting through them.
Tables of dried tea.
 Fresh fish saying "Ni Hao!" 
 Fresh medium sized squid.
 Tons of fresh baby squid on ice.
 Piles of coconuts.
 Durian. The stinky feet fruit.
 Local Walmart distilled liquor. (in the back ground)
 Roasted duck heads.
And it wouldn't be China without some proper miss spelled words on official signs and advertisements. Word of Mouyth, y'all. 

And of course we did see some things that you can see at any Walmart. 
Two guys with ridiculously slurred Southern accents. They wouldn't stop. It was driving me crazy!

A sign showing all the Walmart discounts.
The local ad. 

We were a little disappointed to not see a shark. We saw an article about a Walmart in Shanghai with a shark in it. 
I guess the demand for whole sharks is not as strong in Qingdao.
Here's a few more China Walmart pics we've seen online.
We definitely saw this in Dongying.
This is how the meat is sold at every grocery store in China, not just Walmart.
We see this all the time at grocery stores. Turtles and frogs in the seafood section.


Disclaimer: For those who are wondering if we have started shopping at Walmart in China, we  still DO NOT support Walmart. We choose not to shop here because of their poor business practices in developing countries. 

2 comments :

shelly said...

Loved this!! Wonder if I can request whole shark or fungus here at our Walmart !!

Carolyn said...

Lovely Wal-Mart! You have your mounds of black fungus and we have our mounds of Roma tomatoes! :) Amazing the differnces in culture. Common to them. Unusual to us. Glad you guys went in and took a look see. Otherwise, we would have missed out on the pictures.

Loved the blog! Nice to learn of your earlier experience in Wal-Mart. :) We're all human and if you gotta go, then you gotta go! lol Love you. G'ma

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