Shopping in Hong Kong

Hong Kong People like shopping; they spend lots of money on buying things. According to the survey that made by the government, the value of total retail sales in June 2000, estimated at $15.3 billion. Every person approximately spends $2350 on shopping.

Online Shopping

Nowadays, the rapid development of the Internet advances the online trading. The customers do not need to walk on the streets, they just have to browse the website of that company, and the shop will provide the pictures of the products for you to purchase.

The products you buy will be brought to your home.

In the recent two months( July and August ), there are 600000 people have used the internet to shop, according to the survey of a company, there is a market of 2 billion hk dollars.

The traditional market in Hong Kong

Temple Street

Temple Street is one of the most famous traditional Chinese Market and it locates in Yau Ma Tei. Carts bulge with goods, from casual clothing to mobile phones and watches.

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You might be able to buy all your souvenirs here. If you're lucky, you'll encounter impromptu Chinese street opera, fortune-tellers, and even street dentists. There are many food stalls as well. If everything is clean and you are hungry, then pull up a chair, the market now open at 2pm.

Jade Market

There are many hawkers sell various shades and qualities of the precious stone. To Chinese, jade has great spiritual value for warding off evil. When carved into certain shapes, it can represent wealth (deer), good fortune (tiger) and power (dragon).

Don't buy expensive jade unless you are with an expert. The hours are from 10am-3:30pm daily. Mornings are the best time to go.

Financial Crisis

After the financial crisis in 1997, the economic and financial system of Hong Kong decline a lot, the demand of the consumer also decrease. Many shops were closed down. The companies wanted to attract more people went shopping by carrying out many promotions:

1. Discount

Many shops will offer discounts to the customers in order to sell more products.

As the financial crisis occurs, most of the companies have frozen the salary of their workers. In this way, the amount of money they could spend has decreased. The shops have to attract more customers to spend money, so they offer discounts to the customers. The prices of the products will be reduced from 10 percents to even 50 percents off.

2. Free Parking

There are car parks at every shopping centre. When the customers spend an amount of money, the shopping centre will offer the customers free parking.

The maintenance cost of a shopping centre is very high, the major incomes are the rent of the shops and the fee of the car park. Normally, the fee of the car park is about $18-20 per hour. To attract more people to visit the shopping center, the companies carried out a policies: When a customer spend a certain amount of money in the centre, you will get free parking from 1 to 2 hours.

3. Carnival

Some shopping centres will invite the famous stars to publicize their shopping centres. They hold a carnival to attract people to visit the shopping centre and introduce the centre.

4. Free gifts/ Lucky draw

The shopping will give some free gift to the customers when they visit the centre. Besides, the shopping centre will also hold a lucky draw; they may give large amount of prizes to the customers in order to attract more people to come.

Questionnaire

1. What is your gender?

Male Female

2. What is your age?

Under 10 or 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 21 to 25 26 to 30

31 to 36 36 or above

3. What is your occupation?

Student Housewife Employed Retired

Other. Please specify:_______________

4. How often will you shop?

Every day Three times a week Twice a week Once a week Once a month

5. Which type of transports you choose to go to the place?

Private car On foot Bus Bicycle

Other. Please specify:_____________

6. What type of goods will you purchase when you shop?

Luxury goods (PCs, mobile phones, electronic appliances or furniture etc)

Comparison goods (Clothing, CDs, shoes, toys or accessories etc)

Daily goods (Magazines, food, stationery, soft drinks etc)

7. Income (wage/ pocket money) per week:

�0-50 �51-100 �101-500 �501 or above

8. In the last 2 months, have you ever gone to Mainland China for shopping?

Yes No

9. If yes, how often do you go there?

Once a week Twice a week Once a week

10. Have you ever used the internet to purchase goods?

Yes No

a) Grocery is traditional shop, they usually located in old market, and it shows that there are still many people visit the old market.

b) The price of the goods in Mainland China is lower than in Hong Kong, so many people go to Lo Wu to purchase the things they wanted.

c) I want to investigate the trace of the shopping mode of Hong Kong, so I have done a questionnaire to prove these theories:

1) More and more people go to Mainland China to buy thing

2) More and more people will purchase things through internet

d) Evaluations

If I ask more people to do the questionnaire, the result will be more accurate.

The region I choose to do the questionnaire will influence the result.

Random selection

Only suitable in Hong Kong

e) Even though the Online Shopping is very famous and well known, not many people have tried, especially the people under the age of 18. This is because Cash is not available on the Internet, you must have an account or credit card so the youngsters cannot buy thing through the Internet.

Field Work

I have chosen two typical sites to do investigation; I would compare two sites on Location, Accessible and condition four parts.

A) Festival Walk

Festival Walk is a shopping mall that located in Kowloon Peninsula (urban area) and it was founded in 1997. The centre has 7 levels include 3 underground levels and a car park is located in the bottom part of the centre; it can provide space for 850 cars. Also, the centre is directly connected to the bus stop, taxi station and the only KCR/MTR interchange in Hong Kong with air-conditioned pedestrians access. Therefore, you can get there easily by public transports and private vehicles. The shopping mall is air-conditioned, its design is breathtaking, the walls are made of glass, and so the sunray can reach all the places. In this way, lots of electrical energy is saved. Because of its dramatic setting and accessibility, it has attracted many well-known retail names to set up their shops at there.

The shops inside the centre mainly sell modern and high-class goods, on the other hand, the price of the goods is higher and the customers are mainly youngster

B) Tung Choi Street

Different from the Festival Walk, Tung Choi Street is located in the southern part of Kowloon (urban area). It was founded for more than 30 years. There are fewer choices to reach there; you can only get there on foot or by public transport. You cannot get there by driving the private vehicle because the street is a pedestrian area, no vehicle can enter there.

Tung Choi Street is an old, traditional market and it is not well planned. The shops are smaller and the streets are narrower when compared to the new town. As a result, the shopkeepers sometimes may put their goods near the road and it will cause problems for the pedestrians.

Most of the shops inside the market are selling lower class goods, for example, clothes and books. However, the consumption of these goods is much larger than the high-class goods, so there are still many people visit there.

Type of goods

Festival Walk

The proportion of shops in Festival Walk

Tung Choi Street

The proportion of shops in Tung Choi Street

.

Shopping back to Mainland China

In the recent years, many people went back to China to shop. In 1997, after Hong Kong became a demonstration region of Mainland China, Hong Kong people can go back to china in simplified procedures. There are many shopping sites in China and Lo Wu is the most famous one.

Why the people like to shop in Lo Wu?

1. The price of goods in China is lower than Hong Kong.

The consumption level in China is lower than Hong Kong, that means if you have the same amount of money in China and Hong Kong, you can buy more things in China.

2. Diversified goods

People can purchase many kinds of goods in Lo Wu. There is a big shopping mall and most of the shops are gathered at the mall. However, there are many private products without the allowance of the company, so I do not encourage people to buy too many private goods.

3. Curiosity

After 1997, Hong Kong people are eager to visit China. The shopping centre in Lo Wu is very attractive. As many people have not been visited China, they are willing to visit Lo Wu. Also, the shopping centre made many promotions to attract people to visit there.

4. Traditional products

You can buy many traditional products, which you cannot purchase in other places. For example, Chinese food, traditional medicine and Chinese-style clothing.

Review of the questionnaire

Time: 27th December 2000 11:00am - 2:30pm

Venue: Festival Walk and Tung Choi Street

Number of people: 40 ( 20 on each site )

I am investigating the difference between a high class shopping site and a traditional, old market.

I have set a series of questions to ask the people about their shopping hobbits and other related information. The results are shown below.