economy - Shopping craze hits Shanghai

Most of my heavy shopping I mostly do in Century Market, a gigantic mall owned by Lianhua under Shanghai Stadium. The store is two-floors and a huge capacity. But at the entrances you would mostly see hundreds of unused shopping carts. I often wondered what would happen when all those carts would be rolling, because despite the size of the store, it did not seem big enough for all those trolleys.

Just now I went there to buy a new coffee maker, the one in the office has broken down and coffee is an essential fluid to keep me going. When I saw that all the trolleys had been gone, I should have returned, but I threw myself in the shopping crowds.

I have never seen such a two-floor traffic jam in a store. I could get ahead, but only because I had no trolley. In fifteen minutes I had reached my coffee maker, but the queues at the counters were so huge, that would have taken me another hour. I will buy it tomorrow in the morning, after the rush hour. After Spring festival retailers will announce another record breaking shopping season.