Hidden store still has plenty of passports
- Source: Global Times
- [09:59 June 10 2010]
- Comments
Visitors show their Expo passports purchased at an officially licensed store inside the Expo Park. Photo: CFP
By Ni Dandan
With many officially licensed stores inside the Expo Park now requiring visitors to line up for reservation tickets outside their shops to buy the Expo passport, one shop touts that visitors do not need to queue to purchase the popular souvenir - which they offer in all four colors.
The only catch is that the shop, located on the basement level of the Expo Axis, is not easily visible to passers-by, meaning that visitors will have to search a little harder for these passports - stocked on shelves in a store a floor below a handful of other ground-level stores along the Axis.
Many other stores inside the park, including the shop near the China Pavilion, which sees a high traffic volume of visitors, had already sold out of the passports by Wednesday morning, while the underground shop had plenty to go around.
"We even have more passports in our storage room," said Zhou Xiaomei, an employee of the shop. "The problem is most visitors don't know we exist because of our disadvantaged location."
As a result, the shop has been struggling to sell even 50 passports a day, she added.
"We thought of going to the first floor, right above our store, and holding up a sign telling visitors we have a lot of Expo passports in stock," said Qin Yumei, another store employee. "But, we're afraid that would anger the other nearby stores."
Consequently, the store is left relying on word of mouth from customers who do stumble across their location, making it difficult for the shop to raise profits - barely contributing to the 1 million some passports that have been sold since the park opened.
