When value is irresistible

Many snobs in the West are still sneering at any product made in China. Some have cultural biases and would never buy Chinese because of their deep inherent negative upbringings against China and Chinese. But when value for money does matter, Chinese or not Chinese, the products sell by itself. The consumers would want value for money and they know if they are getting value or otherwise. Wallmart would have gone backrupt long ago without Chinese made products. Apple would not be able to sell its handphones if they are not made in China.

With greater interconnectivity, with online shopping crisscrossing the world, Singapore as a shopping paradise and Orchard Road in particular would see its day numbered. No consumer would want to pay through their noses when they can get the same product at a fraction of the price in Orchard and within the reach of a finger hitting the keyboard. The state of denial that Orchard Road can reinvent itself and Singapore continues to be a shopper's paradise is over despite the hype of the Jewel in Changi. No retailers can afford to price its products beyond its competitors. Orchard Road is a microcosm of what Singapore is all about, unsustainable, high price low value, high salary low productivity joint.

Look at the sales transacted over ezbuy, taobao, aliexpress, Qoo10, Lazadas etc etc, the amount is hundreds of millions daily. The numerous distribution points set by by the likes of ezbuy are all over the islands and with numerous repeats per day per point and with long queues of consumers happily collecting their value buys, mostly goods made in China and South Korea. No one is complaining. One can get a genuine mechanical or automatic watch, made in China, with genuine Seagull mechanism for less than $50, the same mechanism that many western brands used.

And Chinese cellphones are flooding the markets across the world. Even in India, a country that would not want to buy anything Chinese, could not resist the value for money Chinese cellphones and other products that could be had at even cheaper price than Make in India products. The Chinese cellphones are dominating the Indian market with a controlling market share.

Value is irresistible. No amount of talks or negative commentaries could beat products that are value for money. No amount of gimmicks would make consumers pay more for less. The retailers may think the consumers are stupid but would have to live with the realities when consumers just stay away when they could not find value in their goods.

This value is irresistible can be expanded in scope to cover AIIB and BRI or One Belt One Road. Both are great initiatives from China that would benefit all the participating countries. The Americans and its allies have put all the stops and obstacles and offensive propaganda against these two projects. American allies were told not to participate. But the values of these two projects stood up glaringly and those countries seeing their goodness found them irresistible and went against the dictates of the rogue Empire. They joined in full force and the Americans, while trying to isolate China found itself isolated, together with Japan.

When something is created that is of value, there is no fear that it would be rejected. But things that are of no value and overpriced would soon be rejected and dumped.

PS. The European Central Bank and Germany and several western nations have include the Chinese Yuan in their reserve currencies to hedge against a US dollar that is going to turn into banana currency soon.Saudi Arabia is going to sell oil to China using Chinese Yuan, not American banana currency. They knew that they have been had by the Americans. Their hoards of petrol dollars would vanish like smokes in thin air soon.