From Chinese Press

Luxury market is weird

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-17 09:56

A luxury supermarket in Shenyang, Liaoning province, sells frozen sirloin steak from Australia for 1,700 yuan ($262) a kilogram and a bottle of mineral water for 800 yuan. Goods that cost a fortune can be seen everywhere in the supermarket which opened six months ago and claims to cater to "high-end consumers", says an article in Legal Daily. Excerpts:

Though some people want to climb up the social ladder by showing off their wealth in public and perhaps have the right to do so, it seems irrational that China, a country where thrift is a virtue, has overtaken the United States as the second largest luxury goods consumer.

Such figures do not necessarily mean that most of the Chinese people are becoming rich. The country's average income level has been pushed up by the rich, while nearly 90 million people live below the poverty line and hundreds of millions of people belong to the middle- and low-income groups.

That a bottle of mineral water is selling for 800 yuan reflects the increasing income gap in society.

Some people splurge on luxury goods or go shopping abroad because the rich are getting richer and the poor are making little progress.

If the unequal distribution of the fruits of economic development continues, it will widen the divide between the rich and the poor further and lead to social disharmony.

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