I blogged about an incident at my local Asian grocery a while back. In that post, I recounted the story of how I was surprised at the checkout when I was denied a discount on a package of instant ramen due to a technicality that was printed only in a non-English language. On the Thymos listserve, this became known as the “Great Portland Ramen Controversy.”
At the time, I was going to write to the company, but as things got busy with the baby and all, I never got that letter out. Plus, I was too busy to look for someone to translate my letter into the other Asian language. Plus, it was such a low-probability win. Plus, my son LOVES that place since the store managers from the old country treat him well, giving him little gifts and letting him run around.
I was there again yesterday. This time they had something else, which I’m guessing is also from the motherland. They called it “The Five Minute Sale.” It works like this: they make an announcement over the loudspeaker that something–a bag of rice, a bottle of wine, a case of ramen–is on sale for five minutes. You have to make your way to the front of the store in order to get it. If you don’t, too bad. The sale is unadvertised and unannounced until the very minute the five minute stopwatch starts ticking.
Now again, we have the language issue, though it’s not as bad as the newspaper ads. They start by announcing it in Korean, then Cantonese, then Mandarin, then Japanese, then English. It’s a five minute sale when they announce it in Korean, but by the time they’ve worked down the language list, it’s only a 30 second sale for English speakers.
Anyway, yesterday I missed the five minute bar by a few minutes, but the manager was nice enough to give me a break since I didn’t know the rules. So this time I came out ahead. The neverending complexity of Asian grocery shopping…
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I also wanted more rice than what could fit inside the wrap....
haha…these guys are bogus. you should bring it up to them again. i’m guessing this asian store is a korean store now that i’ve put two and two together. it just sound so wrong how they can just do this.
BWAHAHA-HA-HA! 5 minute sales?! I can only the imagine the mad scramble for the items when they announce it. That’s crazy, dude.
It’s crazy. I’ve never shopped in the country that they come from, but I wonder if it’s the same thing. I wonder if it’s a cultural thing. I got a bag of rice really cheap–and I guess it adds excitement to your shopping day–but man, I can only imagine how crazy it’s going to get when the word gets out and everyone knows the rules.