China
18:37, 01-Mar-2018
Why has a convenience store robbery got China talking about trust?
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A theft caught on camera late last month in southern China has unexpectedly renewed netizens’ faith in humanity.
Surveillance footage showed a cashier at a convenience store in the city of Shenzhen empty the cash register, fill a bag with expensive items before making a run for it.
Among the articles stolen is a box of expensive cigarettes worth around 20,000 yuan (more than 3,000 US dollars).
For four hours after the robbery, the store was unattended.
A handful of customers walked in, yet none took advantage of the situation upon realizing there was no one looking after the store.
Their right-minded behavior was lauded by netizens, who drew comparisons between the shoppers' ethics and the shopkeeper who betrayed the trust put in him.
Three children, aged between four and eight, could be seen waiting in front of the counter for a while. When no one came to assist them, they placed the items they wanted to buy back on the shelves and left.
CGTN screenshot shows a customer pay for the items he bought using his phone.
CGTN screenshot shows a customer pay for the items he bought using his phone.
Another man proceeded to scan his purchases and paid using his mobile phone.
The owner of the convenience store told a local broadcaster, the Guangdong Economic Television, that he felt sad about what his employee had done, but at the same time was touched by the shoppers' behavior, which helped cut his losses.
The robbery and subsequent events triggered a discussion on Chinese social media about trust and self-discipline.
“In the first part of the video, I felt sad and wondered why there are so many bad people in China. But when I saw young kids return the goods back on the shelves, I felt that there’s still hope,” wrote a user who goes by the name Yidongshenfei Gemingjun on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
“The video shows (the concept of) cashier-less grocery store. This is based on people’s self-discipline,” said another Weibo user Beautiful Scarlett OHara.
New technologies and economic concepts are increasingly putting trust and sense of community to the test in China.
Chinese Internet and e-commerce companies have been toying with the idea of automated grocery stores as they try to tap into the unmanned retail industry. Tencent in January opened its first pop-up store in Shanghai where no cash and no cashiers are needed.
The bike-sharing craze in China last year highlighted the opportunistic behavior of some bike users after a string of incidents where the dockless two-wheelers were either stolen, misused or damaged.