Then began the mainland's meteoric economic rise. People began earning more and, as a result, had more to spend. Perhaps even more than their "rich Hong Kong cousins."

With the rolling by of the first couple of years of this millennium, the change in the salespeople's attitude in even the largest and poshest of stores was evident.

In fact, a Putonghua-speaker may still get more and better attention than his/her Cantonese-speaking counterpart across the territory.

Well, now there's a new twist to that tale. Mainland and local shoppers are equally unhappy (or peeved, if you like it) with the retail service in "shoppers' paradise".

Happy Westerners

So who is happy? The Westerners, that is, European and North American tourists and visitors from down under, Australia and New Zealand.

The results of a survey, conducted by Hong Kong Polytechnic University's business faculty, should serve as a wake-up call to retailers. After all, aren't mainlanders the largest single overseas group of tourists to Hong Kong? And aren't they big spenders too?

Hong Kong shoppers' satisfaction level was 5.1 and mainlanders', 5.3 on a scale of 7 - 1 being the lowest score and 4, the average. In contrast European and North American tourists gave 5.5 to the retail services and those from Australia and New Zealand, 6.6.

The retailers have their supporters, though. For instance, Hong Kong Polytechnic University's (HKPU) Associate Professor of Business Luk Ting-kwong said: "Given our unique culture and history, Hong Kong people tend to be critical."

"Hongkongers are too used to (good) services and hence take it for granted," said Business Chair Professor Peter Walters of the same university. "The average retail service in Hong Kong is very good compared to the rest of the world."

The number of tourists to Hong Kong has risen sharply since late 2003. The Individual Travel Scheme (ITS) has pushed the number of mainland tourists so much that the mainlanders accounted for 60 percent of the total visitors to Hong Kong last year.

The service industry accounts for 89 percent of Hong Kong's GDP, with retail business being he second largest sector.

The National Day Golden Week holiday, helped by ITS, will bring in hundreds of thousands of more mainlanders in October.

Reasons for alarm

And that's the reason for the alarm. As South China Research analyst Andes Cheng said: "The capability of retail service has yet to meet such an enormously growing demand... Sales assistants lacking professional training and work experience are hastily recruited by anxious store-owners to meet the urgent need to attend to the influx of mainland visitors."

"Discrimination and prejudice are still deeply rooted in Hong Kong people's minds," Cheng said. "Westerners are presumed rich and willing to spend money, hence they are more welcome."

It's high time retailers and all Hongkongers changed their attitude and helped create a prosperous market and harmonious society, she said.

Europeans and North Americans are usually well informed about electronic products, for example, and they prefer the lower prices here.

Hence, they seem to "give less trouble to salespersons." While mainlanders move from shop to shop for the "best product" and a better bargain, for most of them are not up-to-date on products they want to buy," Cheng said.

The study also found mainlanders are less worried about being sold fake products in Hong Kong than back home.

In fact, their major complaint is the poor understanding and speaking of Putonghua of the frontline service employees. Also, they don't like spending a long time waiting and putting in great effort into shopping.

The survey, to help retailers understand their performance better, interviewed 2,333 people.

All, except 41 of the completed questionnaires, were used for the statistical analysis.

(China Daily HK Edition September 28, 2005)