Fuzzy Logic Control and the Shanghai BigBox Shopping Experience....

Hello there and welcome back to yet another Yellow RIver Chronicles.   Sections of this week's missive were written on the Shanghai/Kunming China Eastern Flight MU5805 in seat 40J.   The YRC staff was returning from a brief sojourn in faire Kunming, capital of Yunnan province in the far south of the good old PR of C.   They have some fine mushrooms there.  Other sections were written in Anji, home of the bamboo groves, during an adventure to see the Lunar Eclipse (no, there was not another ditch episode).   This and other details of the adventure will be reported in a future YRC.

But first, something topical.  RETAIL!   As we enter the final laps leading into the Big Laowai Holidays, we thought that this week we would address the one of the more curious of all Shanghai experiences, shopping in a Chinese BigBig Box Store. 

Typical Shopping Street

As background, traditional Shanghai shopping is centered around commercial streets and markets that hum with activity.  The streets specialize in a particular activity.  

There is the street of musicians, famous Jinling Lu, the street of bookstore, Fuzhou Lu, the street of hairdressing equipment, and many others, including the street of buttons.  It was on the street of buttons that a YRC staff member engaged in a legendary negotiation over the price of six buttons.   The initial asking price of 6 yuan (about 90 cents) was fought down to 3 yuan in a tense, high stakes battle of wits.  As we learned in an earlier YRC, sometimes you negotiate (most shops and stalls),  sometimes you do not (temples, tea stores and new book stores).

Seafood Market, Hong Kong

Of the markets, the most interesting tend to be the seafood markets, where the Hairy Crabs bubble, the fish flop and the eels….eel.  This is because the Chinese will not buy seafood unless it is alive.  So, the seafood markets have more of a resemblance to aquariums than they do stores.  


On other hand, the most challenging of all are the fresh meat markets.  Most Shanghaiese do not have refrigeration, nor do they like to buy their meat cold.  So most meat markets look like one of the "Halloween" series of horror movies.  Shopping for meat is NOT FOR THE WEAK!!

Because of these lovely retail traditions, the big box store is a novelty to most Chinese.   There are Wall Marts (haven't been) and there used to be Best Buys (all six stores closed without notice) but our story lies with two gems of Chinese retail adventuring, Carrefours and Ikea.   

Shanghai Carrefours Checkout.  Photo Courtesy of The Telegraph.

We will start with Carrefours.   Carrefours are French superstores, managed by Chinese.  So they have the benefit of both French and Chinese organization.  We will let you think about that a moment as we move on.

 The first thing one notices on arriving at a Carrefours is the noise level.   All business in a Carrefours is completed at full volume, in ALL CAPS!!!  The television sets in electronics are playing a high volume, as are the stereos.  The Chinese love to buy via demonstrations, so there are always half a dozen product demonstrations going on around the store, usually with a Carrefours Pixie or two drawing in the crowds by yelling over the background noise at full volume in their handheld microphones.

There are staff everywhere, usually stationed at about 3 or 4 to an aisle to assist you in your product browsing.  For example, to buy a pack of AAA batteries, one goes to the battery aisle, where there are at least 30 brands, all with different pricing scenarios.  As you stand there, attempting to decipher the pricing and find the right size, a Pixie will come, and begin to hand you batteries from the wall display.  The longer you stay, the more attention you attract....you obviously don't know what the hell you are doing.  As you hand them back politely and they hand you a new selection, you have to wait for a break in the rhythmic exchange of battery packs to dart to the wall,  grab a pack and escape.

Rice Cooker Aisle.  Note Pixie at End.  Photo Courtesy of mcljava.

The YRC staff purchase of a rice cooker is an excellent example.   We had in mind a Japanese rice maker because the instructions are in English.   As we approached the aisle, we realized there were approximately 3,000 different models of rice cookers.  A highly popular item, that.  

As we worked our way down the aisle, we attracted the attention of Pixie the Aisle Helper North, who went with us into the middle section where we picked up Pixie the Aisle Helper Middle and then the four of us went on to work with Pixie the Aisle Helper South. The five of us now were intently gazing at the Japanese rice makers

They took turns handing us various rice cookers and we took turns handing them back until a shadow fell on the rice cooker aisle as the Senior No-Longer A Pixie And Don't Give Me Any of Your LaoWai Crap Section Chief came and began to educate us on "Why You Morons Should Buy The Rice Cooker I am Handing You."  We and the three Pixies gathered around in a large circle to watch.

Why, WHY?  Well, one, because the cooking pan rings like a gong. We took turns gonging the pan and nodding. Two, because it is easy to clean.  She took it apart and whipped it together like she was field-stripping an AK-47.  Click. Click-click. Click.  That simple.   And finally, it had the patented "Fuzzy Logic Control".   Fuzzy Logic Control allows you to: heat soup, cook rice, make oatmeal, steam vegetables and small crustaceans, poach eggs, make stew, noodles and generally dominate the kitchen.

Side Bar!  This from How Stuff Works:

Fuzzy Logic and Rice Cookers

"Fuzzy the Cooker"

Fuzzy-logic rice cookers have computer chips that direct their ability to make proper adjustments to cooking time and temperature. Unlike basic rice cookers, which complete tasks in a single-minded, mechanical manner, the process behind the fuzzy-logic rice cookers needs a bit more explanation. The fuzzy sets theory, first proposed by UC Berkeley professor Lotfi Zadeh in 1965, laid the groundwork for fuzzy logic, which he also put forward in 1973. Fuzzy sets theory has to do with mathematical sets, or groups of items known as elements. In most mathematical sets, an element either belongs to the set or it doesn't. For example, a sparrow would belong to a set of birds, but a bat wouldn't. In fuzzy logic, though, elements can belong to sets in varying degrees. So since a bat has wings, it might belong to a set of birds -- but only to a certain extent. Fuzzy logic is basically a way to program machines so they look at the world in a more human way, with degrees of truth. Instead of cold, hard parameters and strict data sets, fuzzy logic assumes a more practical approach. Using numbers, it incorporates non-definitive words like "slightly" or "almost" into its decision-making processes. As a result, the use of fuzzy logic in rice cookers helps to ensure properly cooked rice because it gives the appliances the ability to make judgment calls similar to those a person might make, albeit typically better than those a hungry, impatient person might make.

Defeated, but wiser, and starting to crack under the barrage of sound from the blender demonstration going on in the next aisle, we grabbed a "Fuzzy" from a stack at the end of the aisle and exited stage right.  One member of the YRC staff has vowed to never return.  But "Fuzzy" does a good job and always cooks perfect rice.  And when things get slow, we can always "Gong the Pan".

Generally, the retail chaos extends to all elements in the shopping process at Carrefours.   The aisles swarm with shopping citizens earnestly discussing the merits of different brands of dried plums.  Shopping carts move about with destructive ferocity.   Citizens will often stop their group discussions to inspect what the Laowai have in their shopping cart.  A passing matron will reach in and sort through the items in the cart.  


A standing Laowai who is studying an entire wall of instant soup noodles will often attract a crowd who will then stand and look in the same direction to see what is going on.  Shopping is a full-contact sport, people, and not for the indecisive or weak.   If you want that, go to Lawsons (topic for a future YRC).

Another excellent example of the retail process is the WSJ  article," IKEA is a Swede Place for Love".  We have posted it as a separate blog post so WSJ gets the credit and so you can believe the veracity of the materials.  We refer to it as the invasion of the "Silver Haired Chattering Love Birds" in the Shanghai IKEA.  Truth be told, the article speaks for itself.  Pay particular attention to the eggshells and orange peels.

So curl up at the IKEA in a chair, take a nap, or break out your mobile device to read next weeks YRC.  We will learn about another bird, the siberian seagull when we hang out at the Hiker's Cafe in Kunming!  See you next week and keep the coffee hot for us.