The Grocery Store Conundrum

There are too many people in China. It is a fact that the Chinese themselves even seem aware of.  This generally leads to the crowded cities and neighborhoods that exemplify typical life for us urban dwellers.  I am a city person, and I don't worry about the crowds or lack of space save for select occassions.  One such occassion is the visit to the local grocery store. 

It is a small neighborhood grocery with limited selection and errant rice grains strewn across the floor from sloppy bagging.  The fruit looks rotted and stinks with the humidity in the warmer months.  General mustiness aside, the store is fine and is no great variation from the norm here.  The main issue that I have deals with the inefficient nature of its operation.

Busy hours hit the store like a freight train, slamming them in the evening when commuters return home and the three times a day that the factories in the neighborhood let out their shifts.  The store (indeed the whole area) floods with red vests and long sleeved tan shirts of the workers, doing their purchasing.  The grocery has six cashier stands, plus a tobacco desk that doubles as a cashier.  So seven spaces are available to ring up customers.

Even at these busiest of hours, the most I have ever witnessed is three cashiers in action (plus our lady at the tobacco desk).  Perhaps a shortage of staff you say?  Heavens no!  There is a woman who ought to be in school arranging counterfeit toothpaste.  Three young guys stand in the back of the store making sure nobody is pocketing squid jerky.  Another three or four are milling about the fruit stands, and I'm not sure what exactly they do.

It is a baffling thing to me to, during the busiest time of the day, not have all the registers open.  It makes no sense to have so many if you won't use them all.  It makes no sense to have no employees if they simply wast their time.  It makes no sense to the foreigner anyway.  The Chinese just hold their rice and stand in line waiting their turn.  C'est la vie.