Smart Mob in China for Retailer Discount

taweili writes "The Economist has a story about Tuangou in China. Tuangou, roughly translated into group purchasing, is basically a smart mob who arrange the meet up over the internet and show up at a retailer at a specific time and use their number to negotiate a discount with the retailer. In the story, a Tuangou group of 500 show up in Gomei (largest home electronic retailer in China) at 4pm on June 16th and negotiate a 10 ~ 30% discount for the group. Gomei not only closed the door to the normal customers but also prepared goody bags for these Tuangou shoppers. Now, that's Power to the People!"

Comments

Re:What if the retailer doesn't play along?

[sholden]

You already have a mob handy, so you just burn the shop down and loot what you wanted...

HURRY!!!

[hullabalucination]

The People's Glorious Struggle Against the Opressive Running Dog Capitalists Bargain Barn offers 25% OFF to YOU AND EVERYBODY IN YOUR CADRE!!! So stop on by TODAY!!!

* * * * * * *

So, this capitalist lackey and his bourgeoisie imperialist masters walk into this bar looking to oppress the proletariat, see, and there's a frog on this one guy's head, see? And the bartender says, "Hey...what the heck is THAT?!" And the frog replies, "Well, it started as a wart on my ass..."
--Comrade Henny Youngman

Re:Won't happen in North America

[LearnToSpell]

At a gas station! Duh!