Imported foods that show up in various retail markets in Beijing seem to attract few customers. Although these retail markets have set a special zone for the sale of these imported goods, customers seem to be scared away by their high prices.

So far, foreign-funded retailers such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and Auchan, have all placed these imported foods on their shelves. Domestic retailers like Wumart and Beijing Jingkelong Co., Ltd. also allocated a special area for these goods. Although more and more retail stores have put these goods on their shelves, and many customers do notice them, their prices, which are usually 30-50% higher than domestic products, keep away most of the customers.

Occasionally, some young customers might spend ten yuan for a bar of imported chocolate or choose a bottle of coffee at 50-60 yuan after making comparisons between different goods. In most cases, however, customers will take these goods and, after thinking for a while, put them back in their original places.

Investigation shows that the imported goods are mostly chocolate, coffee, cookies, mayonnaise, canned food or olive oil, for which there are plenty of domestically made products for Chinese customers to choose and domestic products are usually sold at a much cheaper price, too, usually 30% cheaper than imported goods. A bottle of imported dressing, for example, might cost 37.5 yuan, while the same kind made in China will only sell at around 20 yuan. A bottle of mineral water on the import goods shelf is sold at 6 yuan, six times the price of the same amount made in China.

Source:未知