Chinese supermarkets expand to the end of the universe | A broad view of going global

Source: Jingxiang Studio (ID: shangyejingxiang)

Author: Feng Ye

Editor: Lu Zhen

You can almost find Chinese supermarkets in any corner of the world. This "corner" could be a street corner in the San Francisco Bay Area or a Chinese community in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Sometimes, these "corners" are incredibly remote. For example, in Port Antonio, a coastal city in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, which is almost invisible on Chinese Internet platforms. In the few publicly available materials, it is described as a dangerous area with frequent criminal activities such as robbery, theft, murder, and drug - related crimes. Even so, several Chinese supermarkets have still taken root here.

Li Mingda once co - owned a Chinese supermarket in Port Antonio for nine years. When asked about the opportunity to go to Jamaica, he was very certain. "There's no need to ask. 99% of the Chinese people running supermarkets abroad were brought there by relatives or friends."

Ake, a global traveler, has made similar observations. Based on his experience, there are particularly many ethnic Chinese engaged in the supermarket business in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Take Argentina as an example. Public data shows that as of 2023, there were a total of 10,788 Chinese - owned supermarkets in Argentina. In Buenos Aires, its capital, you can see a Chinese supermarket every two or three blocks.

Behind this distribution, there are complex historical reasons. Ake observed that "most of the people who dared to go there went to rely on their kinship networks. The earliest immigrants to Southeast Asia and Latin America mostly went there for work. Some were even 'sold as coolies' during the late Qing Dynasty. In contrast, immigrants to developed countries were more likely to go there to learn skills or receive an education." In other words, family networks and social classes largely determine the destinations and motivations of immigrants.

The stories of ethnic Chinese opening supermarkets usually follow a similar pattern: Person A is first brought there by relative B and works in B's supermarket. After saving up enough money, A opens another store or takes over B's shop and gradually expands. In this way, Chinese supermarkets are scattered like dots and spread linearly to every corner of the world. Ake even saw ethnic Chinese businessmen running supermarkets in the Amazon rainforest.

In developed markets, Chinese supermarkets are numerous, and the mature market structure has given rise to chain giants like 99 Ranch Market. However, in emerging markets, the most common are small Chinese supermarkets run by families, couples, or individuals. Compared with the glamorous and mainstream stories of going global, these individual entrepreneurs seem more rough - edged and unpolished. They represent another side of going global and have witnessed more brutal struggles.

01 "If you ask me to draw a portrait of a thief, I can't."

For a while, Li Mingda thought the newly recruited employee was quite good. She was a local Jamaican, quick and considerate in her work. The shoe racks she organized were always in good order.

Li Mingda's supermarket's business area was not small, about 300 square meters, and the warehouse was 500 square meters. This meant it was not easy to keep the whole store clean. In addition to stocking shelves and selling goods, the employees had to take turns to do the cleaning. The new employee was always very diligent. "At least that was my impression of her."

The turning point came quickly. It was her turn to clean that week. When taking out the trash, Li Mingda noticed her carrying a box out of the store. "It looked quite new." Without saying a word, he went straight to the monitoring room on the second floor to observe.

Instead of going to the trash can, she walked around to the stall owners in the market outside the store. Li Mingda immediately went downstairs and found that the box was filled with hair dryers sold in the supermarket. He quickly calmed down, skillfully called the police, and dealt with it according to the "ten - times - the - price - for - theft" rule. This "diligent and considerate" employee was immediately fired.

Obviously, this was not Li Mingda's first encounter with theft. Compared with employees stealing from the store, customers stole more frequently. In Jamaica, thieves have no fixed characteristics, regardless of gender or age. "If you ask me to draw a portrait of a thief, I can't." Sometimes, children steal more frequently than adults. The items they steal are also not fixed. They steal whatever is easy to steal, such as underwear and panties that can be easily folded and put into a pocket.

Related to the local economy and education level, Li Mingda mentioned that apart from tourism and traditional agriculture, Jamaica's economy still relies on gray industries such as drugs and guns. Theft is just a common minor crime. Locals don't even consider it a crime. Thieves who are caught often act defiantly, insisting that 'What I steal is given to me by God!' They will only obediently admit their mistakes and pay compensation when they see the police.

Li Mingda found that the ceiling of the supermarket warehouse had been pried open, so he had to install iron plates on the roof. Source: Li Mingda

Over time, Li Mingda developed a complex sense of pity. Jamaica was once known as the "fatherless country." People have children without restraint, but due to the overly open and chaotic relationships between men and women, many children are born without fathers. Theft has become a way of survival for some people.

"It's really too backward and too poor," Li Mingda sighed. "Stealing a little stuff doesn't involve much money. Even big supermarkets like Walmart have a lot of things stolen every day. Look at Uniqlo. They have over 10,000 yuan worth of clothes stolen every month. It's very common." To this day, Li Mingda still hasn't received the fine for the hair dryers.

Lin Lei, an ethnic Chinese in Argentina, had a more thrilling experience. Lin Lei's family runs two supermarkets in La Plata, an eastern coastal city in Argentina. Each store has an area of 150 square meters. She helps out in the stores when she is free. La Plata has been listed by local media as one of the "least safe cities in Argentina," with frequent violent incidents and home invasions. The two supermarkets of Lin Lei's family are located in the city center and a poor neighborhood respectively. The latter suffers from theft more frequently, "about once a week." To ensure the daily operation of the store, they specially hired a security guard for this store.

But security guards need to rest, and danger lurks in these gaps. One Sunday, an armed robber broke into the supermarket. He pointed the gun at the cashier and threatened to empty the cash register and hand over all the money. The best thing to do was to comply. "Life is more important," Lin Lei's parents often emphasized, because the trigger could be pulled at any time. Fortunately, if the robber gets the money, he will leave directly without harming anyone.

Lin Lei believes that as the capital of Buenos Aires Province, La Plata is a historical and cultural city after all. "The daily security is not as bad as reported in the news." However, when the overall economy is in decline, the frequency of armed robberies increases.

According to the Associated Press, in 2023 - the year when the current President Javier Milei was elected - Argentina's annual inflation rate soared to 211.4%, reaching the highest level since 1991. During the general election, the public, unable to predict the future, sold off their assets on a large scale. To stabilize public opinion, the government showered the public with subsidies, further exacerbating currency depreciation and inflation.

"The prices of goods rise very quickly, changing every day. The price of a product was 400 pesos on Monday and became 800 pesos the next day, doubling." Lin Lei described.

The chaos in the system is the fuse for violent incidents. "You can encounter this kind of (armed robbery) once or twice a year, not to mention theft." Other relatives running supermarkets are not spared either. She also heard that another relative working in a supermarket was even involved in a gunfight. "He was shot in the thigh, and the blood wouldn't stop." He was finally rushed to the hospital.

Furthermore, the system can not only pose a threat but also become a threat itself. Some ethnic Chinese businessmen in developing countries revealed that they also face situations where relevant departments come to ask for money. "They come and look for problems in the store and find various reasons to fine. If they can't find any faults, they'll just ask for someone to buy them coffee." But since the supermarkets are in their territory, no one dares not to pay.

Over the years, the ethnic Chinese business community has formed an unspoken rule: First, they must keep a low profile and never cause trouble on their own initiative. Second, if trouble comes, it's best to pay to settle it. People believe in the principle that "peace of mind is priceless."

02 Open the door and do business

Before going to Jamaica, Li Mingda's relatives gave him many warnings: "You have to be mentally prepared. It will be hard and boring here."

However, Li Mingda didn't really imagine what life in Jamaica would be like. At that time, he had just graduated from school and was not satisfied with his new life. His sense of confusion was growing. "Why not go out and have a try?" He actively contacted his family members who were running a supermarket in Port Antonio.

Compared with the unknown future, the current unchanging and unpleasant environment was more terrifying. People don't always migrate in search of better resources. Sometimes, it's just to solve the current dilemma. Li Mingda was not the only one with such thoughts.

It only took Piggy two weeks to decide to open a supermarket in Cambodia. He can recite the timeline of opening the store by heart: On October 29, 2019, he left his hometown in Zhejiang to visit Phnom Penh for an inspection. On November 15, he took over a supermarket and paid the transfer fee. On November 16, he was already standing behind the cash register, checking out customers.

This decisiveness was not due to impulsiveness. Before going to Cambodia, Piggy had run an interior design company in China, but the income could barely cover the expenses. To put it bluntly, "he invested a lot of energy and time but got no return." Out of kindness, Piggy also guaranteed a friend's debt. When the friend failed to pay it back, on top of his existing mortgage and car loan, his debt increased by hundreds of thousands of yuan. "He was almost at the end of his rope."

Opening a supermarket in Cambodia became a turning point in Piggy's life. In six years, Piggy expanded the supermarket from the initial two stores to five. The additional three stores were acquired from the neighboring supermarket.

The food section of Piggy's supermarket, with a layout similar to that of domestic supermarkets.

Source: Piggy

Among the main businesses of overseas ethnic Chinese, the threshold for running a supermarket is not high. Early Chinese immigrants often made a living with the "three knives": the kitchen knife, the scissors, and the razor, which required at least one skill in cooking, leather and fabric work, or hair - cutting. But opening a supermarket doesn't require that. It only requires an initial start - up fund. 'You don't even need to think too much. Just be a bit more diligent and open the door to do business.' Li Mingda described.

Piggy's experience is to do small things well. "The rest is up to fate." It's necessary to ensure that no products expire. "Some Chinese supermarkets even have expired mineral water that's been expired for a year." After instructing the employees, Piggy will regularly check the shelves. If there are no expired products, the employees will get a $10 bonus that month.

Where there are people, there are needs. As the region with the most concentrated overseas Chinese population in the world, in Southeast Asia, Chinese supermarkets only need to serve the local Chinese community to have a stable flow of customers. Piggy's supermarket is located in Jinbao City, Phnom Penh, one of the local Chinese - concentrated areas. Most of the products it sells are well - known Chinese brands. During festivals, Piggy will also promote gift boxes on his WeChat Moments. After a customer has visited two or three times, Piggy can remember his name and will warmly greet him as "Mr. So - and - so" the next time he sees him.

In far - away countries like Jamaica and Argentina in Latin America, the customers of Chinese supermarkets are usually locals. The high - quality, inexpensive, and diverse Chinese products can quickly open up the market and are very popular among locals.

"The most profitable season is the Christmas season," Li Mingda said. Jamaicans like to replace all their household textiles before Christmas, including bedding sets, curtains, and floor coverings. Bright - colored styles are especially popular. They will purchase large quantities of goods directly from Chinese factories. In Argentina, products related to football stars - such as mugs made in Yiwu with Messi's picture on them - are in short supply. "There are always customers asking when the next batch will arrive." Lin Lei recalled.

On the other hand, China's rich supply chain and increasingly convenient cross - border trade also give ethnic Chinese running supermarkets more advantages in terms of sourcing goods.

Piggy's hometown is in Lishui, Zhejiang, which is famous as the "hometown of supermarkets and shopping malls." There are more than 60,000 Lishui people engaged in overseas retail business. One of Piggy's high - school classmates is engaged in the wholesale business in Cambodia. The timeliness of getting goods locally is extremely high. "If you place an order in the morning, the goods can be delivered in the afternoon." And due to the geographical proximity, it's also very convenient to get goods from China. As long as the wholesaler transports the goods to the designated warehouse, the cross - border freight forwarder will deliver the goods directly to the supermarket door. If transported by land, the goods can be received in as fast as a week.

In the business world, supermarkets are a typical "boring business" with traditional trading methods and a fixed business model. It seems dull and cannot create a myth of getting rich overnight. Take Li Mingda for example. The average monthly profit of the supermarket he works in is about 100,000 yuan. However, it cannot be denied that this is a stable small business that can enable ethnic Chinese to live a decent life in developing countries. For those who leave their hometowns, stability itself is the greatest value.

03 The smallest unit of going global

The supermarket opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 6:30 p.m. at the latest, every day. When in Jamaica, Li Mingda hardly had any local friends or social life. His life was confined to the space of the supermarket. As for his work, "ordering goods, handling incoming and outgoing goods, assigning work tasks... He had to do everything." He got used to this boredom and rarely complained. When he was free, he would read books or play games. When in Jamaica, he finished reading the entire "Dream of the Red Chamber."

Lin Lei also thinks her family's work is very monotonous. Her father checks the quotes from wholesalers as soon as he gets up and negotiates with salesmen from different companies. Then, he has to check the inventory in the warehouse, see if there are any hot - selling products recently, check which new products are coming in, receive the newly arrived goods, and count them again. Employees in Argentina are not afraid to take leave, so he has to do more work. "It's very hard. Some relatives here make local friends, but my family just keeps working."

The park in La Plata near Lin Lei's supermarket. Source: Lin Lei

To integrate into the local community, one needs to overcome language and cultural differences, but most ethnic Chinese businessmen don't have such a desire. In traditional supermarkets, customers usually do self - service shopping, and there isn't much interaction. Many bosses have only learned a few simple words for transactions even after living in the local area for more than a decade.

Ake explained that in South America, for example, compared with "putting down roots," some ethnic Chinese businessmen he met hope to "return to their hometowns in old age." "(They) want to go back to their hometowns to retire after making money. They are working hard now to buy houses and pave the way for the next generation. Some complain about the hard work, but they still keep doing it."

The social circle of ethnic Chinese businessmen is usually limited to the local ethnic Chinese community. They form organizations and share resources. Similar to Chinatown in New York and the Korean - town in Wangjing, Beijing, sociologists call this "ethnic economy in ethnic enclaves," emphasizing its high degree of concentration and a certain level of organizational completeness.

In 2017, the number of Chinese immigrants in Argentina had exceeded 180,000, with about 150,000 from Fujian. In the Fujian同乡 group where Lin Lei's family is in, information such as "which wholesaler offers lower quotes" is often shared. When a boss recruits a new employee, he will also conduct a background check in the group, asking "Has this employee worked anywhere else before? Why did he quit?" If someone wants to open a new supermarket, they need the consent of the group members. "They need to make sure the new location won't affect others' businesses."

However, this social network is more like a fishing net. Only family members and fellow villagers can get close to the center, while other ethnic Chinese with only occasional interactions are on the periphery. Ake believes that overall, competition among overseas ethnic Chinese businessmen is greater than cooperation. "Cooperation only exists among those with kinship, and the competition among others is very fierce."

"The simplest form of competition is a price war. If you sell something for one dollar, I'll sell it for fifty cents. In more serious cases, it even involves gang fights." Ake recalled his experience in the wholesale district of Santiago, the capital of Chile. As soon as he stepped into a clothing store, the boss gave him a suspicious look from head to toe. Only after he introduced himself did the boss relax. "She was worried that I was there to copy the designs."

Ake in the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan. Source: Ake

In an unfamiliar emerging market, strangers often mean greater risks. Apart from old friends he knew in China before, Piggy admitted that when in Cambodia, "he didn't make any real friends." The background of ethnic Chinese in Cambodia is complex, and there is a saying in the community that "Chinese people only cheat other Chinese people."

Piggy has had a personal experience: A customer once placed an online order for 100 bags of rice and specifically requested that "the boss must deliver the goods." But due to his busy schedule that day, Piggy could only ask a worker to do it instead. As soon as the customer found out, the order was quickly cancelled. The next evening, Piggy heard from a friend that another supermarket boss had a similar experience.

The difference was that he delivered the goods himself and was eventually kidnapped.

Due to the need for trust and security, most ethnic Chinese businessmen just float between the local people and the ethnic Chinese community, living in a state of limbo. Sociologist Wu Yifan summarized after studying the ethnic economy in the ethnic enclave of the wholesale district in Chile that "it doesn't mainly serve the ethnic group and doesn't aim to be deeply rooted in the local society." This statement can also be used to describe ethnic Chinese businessmen in other emerging markets.

Loneliness and boredom are inevitable, but fortunately, they are temporary. In early 2024, Li Mingda used the savings he had accumulated after working in Jamaica for nine years to return to China to do business. "He still misses home. If he stays abroad longer, as he gets older, it may be even more difficult to come back and develop." Piggy found two well - known relatives and friends as partners to jointly run the supermarket, and he has more time to return to China to rest.

With the acceleration of globalization, the competition in the overseas Chinese supermarket market is shifting from within the fellow - villagers' circle to a broader and more brutal dimension, and the business path is becoming more and more rugged.

Take Cambodia as an example. When Piggy first arrived in Phnom Penh, there were only four or five Chinese supermarkets within 200 meters of his supermarket. Now, there are more than a dozen more. He has thought about "whether to sell the store" many times, but finally chose to cooperate with others to spread the risk.

Ake found that under the squeeze of chain giants, "traditional small supermarkets are really on the verge of closing down. Chain supermarkets have lower wholesale prices and a wider range of products." Many bosses are starting to seek transformation, such as opening game arcades or children's playgrounds, or opening stores in more remote areas to avoid competition, like in the Amazon rainforest.

On the other hand, the way people go global is also evolving rapidly. Nowadays, people are keen to talk about cross - border e - commerce, new energy, and Internet - based globalization. The traditional foreign trade model like supermarkets is defined as "Globalization 2.0." This kind of business that "only exports products and doesn't attach importance to brand value" has been marginalized in the mainstream discourse system - along with the hard - working ethnic Chinese businessmen, they will eventually be left behind by the rapidly changing narrative of the times.

It cannot be denied that Chinese supermarket owners scattered around the world are still an important part of the globalization process. They have taken on the responsibility of bringing Chinese products into the market, forming a vast and spontaneous "grass - roots globalization" layout, and achieving the smallest - scale globalization. Through the shelves on every street corner, global consumers can get to know Chinese products and culture. In other words, the current narrative of brand globalization stands on the foundation they have laid.

Individuals rarely realize the role they play in the era. Most of the time, they just stand behind the counter.

Ake once met a boss who runs a supermarket in São Paulo. He only travels between the store and his residence every day, living a two - point - one - line life. He hardly ever leaves the wholesale district and has never traveled. He has lived like this for more than a decade. Only once, due to a holiday and the inability to open the store, he finally decided to go to the beach. It was the first time he saw the long coastline of São Paulo state.

References

1. "A Study on the Ethnic Economy in South - South Immigrant Enclaves: A Case Study of Chinatown in Chile," Wu Yifan, "Overseas Chinese History Studies"

2. "Chinatown: An Urban Ethnic Enclave with Great Socio - economic Potential," Zhou Min, Guo Nan

This article is from the WeChat official account "Hangzhou Qiantang Enterprise Globalization Service Base", author: Author from Jingxiang Studio.