Consumer Choices In Australia
The criteria for commercial success in China versus The West has developed some substantial cultural differences over the years.
Consumer choices is one major cultural difference between Chinese and Western business models.
In Australia, a Western country, when a consumer wishes to visit a coffee shop for example, once the consumer leaves their house, in terms of consumer choices, a consumer has nothing. The only option is to visit the local shops, sit down with a coffee, and work.
Otherwise, a consumer could travel a few kilometers to a nearby mall – which has 3-4 consumer choices – or a consumer could travel into town – which has 2-3 consumer options for coffee shops.
Altogether, within a 5-kilometer radius a consumer can make 6-8 possible choices.
Consumer Choices In China
In China however, because commerce is so densely aligned with residential properties, a consumer could step out of their apartment and immediately have 20 options available to sit down somewhere and do their work.
China just has so many small businesses, cafes, and niche restaurants that provide consumers with the luxury of a table to sit down with a laptop to work.
If a consumer in China is not satisfied with their local area, they can travel to the next metro station, a mere 2 kilometers away, where a similar array of consumer options would be available to choose from.
In China, the same 5-kilometer radius yields 50-60 possible choices for the consumer to work on their laptop with a coffee in hand.
Consumer choice is one thing to love about China.
Business’s Hidden Gems In China
Business in China is structured in such a way that if you walk off the beaten track, you are bound to come across a trove of new hidden gems in unexpected places.
One time, a friend in China described a coffee shop in Dongshankou （东山口） she wanted to see.
When she showed me the photos I remembered I had visited that three-level coffee shop before. It was hidden away on a very unnoticeable side-street. She had never seen this trendy coffee shop in China, except for on the internet. Yet, it was famous.
China has thousands of these hidden gems. The reason is because in China, residential zones and commercial zones blur between the lines.
China is such a huge country, and demand for consumer choice so vast, that a business who is unable to use location to attract business can instead win business with a successful advertisement campaign.
In China, a renovated house or apartment block, rezoned as a suave, elegant, and vibrant coffee shop, and then advertised online would see trendy consumers flock to the business, even though the business is invisible to the outside world.
Business Predictability In Australia
Whereas in Australia, business is so predictable that a consumer could walk for kilometers and never discover anything new.
In Australia, residential and commercial zones are strictly enforced. A residential zone only has houses for people in which to live. Everybody in Australia knows where the commercial zones are.
In Australia, a business does not really have to advertise, it just has to be there. Everyone in a local Australian residential area who drives into town will know a new business has opened up.
More so, the commercial zones are small in size and only have seldom few choices in terms of business types.
That predictability and staleness is what is so dull about Australian business.
in China, the coexistence between business and consumers is more fluid.
A consumer could leave their apartment block, walk underneath the stairwell and see small businesses under awnings selling goods at the apartment block’s ground floor.
In China, business is everything. It makes for a vibrant （热闹） atmosphere.
Diary Of A Mad Chaos is a daily diary written from March 1996 until today, of which individual books and book series have been created, namely “The Lost Years” an exploration of young, entwined love, the “Wubao In China (猎艳奇缘)” book series which provides an extensive comparative analysis of the cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies, and the book titled “Foreigner (华人)” an exploration of race relations in Australia.
