Rising prices change lifestyles of Chinese shoppers
0 
As China is likely to face a new round of all-around inflation, economical shoppers in the country are changing their buying habits to cushion the increasing pressure from rising prices.
While waiting at Hong Kong's Sheung Shui railway station for the train back to Shenzhen, only a stone's throw to the north, Xiao Wen is discussing her trophies with her husband on the phone.
"What a harvest! I need a bigger cart next time," said Xiao Wen, speaking loudly, a smile on her face.
Inside the cart in front of her are not luxury or imported cosmetics, which are usually the favorite for inland tourists to Hong Kong. Instead, the cart is full of food items and other articles for daily use.
"There is no other choice," said the young housewife. "Prices in Shenzhen rise so fast and quite a lot of stuff is cheaper in Hong Kong."
For instance, a pack of salt is priced at two yuan (30 U.S. cents) in Shenzhen but only costs 1.1 HK dollars or 0.9 yuan in Hong Kong. Prices of apples, eggs, toilet paper and shampoo are cheaper, too, in Hong Kong than in Shenzhen, Xiao Wen told the reporter.
"If I buy enough at once, I can save quite a lot of money, even with the return tickets of 40 yuan," she said.
With her multiple-entry visa, Xiao Wen now goes to Hong Kong at least once every month, shopping mostly for items for daily use.
She is not the only one shopping in Hong Kong. Many of her friends do the same, buying sugar, salt, soybean sauce and even dental floss in bulk.
Ironically, only a few years ago it was Hong Kong residents who would come to Shenzhen to spend weekends shopping and dining.
A price monitoring survey released by the country's top economic planner showed that food prices have risen in mass in October.
Also, prices of 24 out of 31 food items monitored in 36 cities in October have risen from the previous month, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Tuesday.
Cooking oil prices, for example, jumped about 10 to 20 percent during the past month as raw materials went up.
Further, higher food prices pushed the country's consumer price index (CPI) to a 23-month high of 3.6 percent in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
In order to bring down the price of cooking oil, the National Grain & Oil Trade Center put on the market on Oct. 20 about 300,000 tonnes of reserved cooking oil to increase supply.
Meanwhile, China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, lifted the country's one-year lending and deposit rate by 25 basis points effective Oct. 20.
The interest rate rise was a response to price increases and other economic problems, said NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun.
Before the prices really come down, those inland shoppers who can not visit Hong Kong as Xiao Wen does have to find other ways to save money.
Zhang Yiyuan, a middle-aged man in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, goes to the supermarket more frequently these days. He bought four barrels of cooking oil last Saturday and five packs of sugar on the second day.
"I heard that prices of these items are going up, so I bought some for myself and for my parents," Zhang said.
Stocking-up is not rare in China. Back in 1998, when the country was in a period of high inflation, people were swarming into stores to buy in bulk for fear of price jumps.
Some other shoppers, however, would resort to group buying as a way of securing discounts.
Group buying is currently so popular that websites providing such kinds of services are mushrooming overnight.
China had only about 100 group buying sites in March this year, but 1,215 were registered by the end of August, statistics show.
In a bid to regulate the development of industry and to better safeguard interests of group buyers, the Ministry of Commerce gave credit qualifications to 29 online group buying sites last Friday.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments