---- An Investigative Report on the “Chiefs'” existence during the Shanghai Quarantine
This is an investigative report on the “chiefs” of shanghai communities. Since March 2022, the outbreak of the Omicron epidemic in Shanghai has caught many families off guard. Put simply, they didn’t have enough food or any supplies. Therefore, each community has developed an important role: leaders of collective buying who we warmly call them “chiefs”. To a great extent, their resilience and efforts have helped their respective communities out of the difficult situation. Who are those so-called “Chiefs” anyway?
In order to understand: the motivation and characteristics of group buying organizers, people's purchasing needs during the quarantine period, and the formation of the "collective buying" phenomenon, we launched a social survey of Shanghai residents.
The questionnaire was aimed for both the chiefs and their members. It was completed between April 29, 2022 and May 13, 2022. A total of 413 valid questionnaires were received. Among them, there are 104 chiefs, 295 members, and 14 remaining people who did not participate in any of the collective buying.
Why do we need chiefs?
What prompt the chiefs to become the chiefs?
Shanghai quarantine 2022 was a dead clock: most supermarkets, stores, offices were closed, most logistics were out of service, no one was allowed to leave their homes or communities, a one-week quarantine of one district soon became a 2-month quarantine for everyone in Shanghai. Quickly, people ran out of food.
When the logistics was basically out of service, the labor cost of the takeaway boys increased sharply, and the delivery cost of goods across regions in Shanghai even rose to 300 CNY (usually its 5~10 CNY) per order. By organizing consumers in advance and using the form of collective procurement in the community, this substantially reduced the costs, therefore, solving the problem. This prompted many chiefs to organize group purchases, which not only solved their own purchasing needs, but also benefited others within their communities.
Many people were motivated by the “Chief Power” & “Chief halo” of becoming the chiefs.
Although chiefs of their communities had to spend extra hours working and take on more responsibilities to organize the collective buying without any pecuniary benefits, there are still some benefits they could enjoy including power and halo. For example, the chief could freely choose the products for group buying. Some of the chiefs organized collective buying over the "luxury goods" during the lockdown period, such as cola, fried chicken, and hot pot, etc. This makes the group buying activity more entertaining and exciting. Both the chief and its members would look closely at the products’ logistics with expectations. This shortens people’s distances. An anonymous member said,
"Actually, even if we didn't get to eat the fried chickens in the end, the two days of anticipation and happiness was worth it."
Other benefits of being a chief would include the halo of becoming a chief. Many chiefs claimed that they have gained members’ respects. An anonymous chief recalled her experience when she was out distributing the goods “Everyone was so happy to see me, some of the elder ladies were very thankful, they praised me and even shook my hands as if I was a great leader, that was quite an unforgettable scene.”
Though on a darker side of reality, there exists some chiefs that were motivated by the economic profits from organizing those collective buying. Some members claim that the price of the vegetable packages they bought had outrageous prices and very low quality. Many members of those communities suffered from economic loss and hunger.
What are some products the chiefs organize collective buying? Does it satisfy the members’ needs?
The products with the highest buying ratio among the organized collective buying are: meat, egg, milk, and bread. Among the 413 respondents, more than 70% of them have group bought these products.
Why meat, egg and milk?
The shelf lives of these foods are relatively short, yet these high-quality protein foods are necessities for human body. Comparing with vegetables, rice, noodles, and oil (foods that are typically stored in larger quantities for longer time), meat, egg and milk are most likely to become the first necessities household have shortage of when the sudden lockdown comes.
Over 62% of the members answered yes to the question “did the collective buying help you solve your needs?”. This is an impressive data since it is difficult for an activity initiated by very different individuals within their respective community to meet everyone's needs to such a large extent.
Shanghainese Culture Revealed
Shanghainese have the nickname of "Coffee Man”. In the city with the greatest quantities of coffee shop globally, do the Shanghainese truly love coffee? The questionnaire shows that about 12% of people have bought coffee in group purchases, a proportion that is even higher than that of drinking water!
How exactly do you organize a collective buying?
The chiefs had a heavy workload. The basic steps to organize a group purchase are as follows:
1. Contact the supplier
2. Promote the group buying
3. Count the number of group purchases
4. Collect the statistics of the group buying products
5. Collect the fees
6. Follow up the delivery logistics situation in time
7. Distribute after the group purchase products arrive
Within this massive amount of workload, the chiefs still had to take risks on selecting a trustworthy delivery man, accept doubts, and deal with all kinds of unpleasantness, large and small. The most common arguments and doubts they received are the dispute over the delivery dates. The uncertainties and urgencies brought about by the lockdown made people very stressed, leading to the increase of negative energy. In the process of group buying, chiefs needed to obtain abilities far more important than organizational statistics: the patience to comfort members’ feelings and powerful communication skills.
Chief Portrait
"Who are more likely to become a chief? Do they share similarities"
According to the statistical data, I compiled a comparison chart of the gender, age, whether they live alone, whether they are married, and the number of children between the leader and the non-leader.
Who are more likely to become a chief?
By comparing questions: whether the chiefs and members lived alone or not, married or not, and the number of children they have, the data show striking similarity of the images. None of these questions constitute any influence on whether a person will become the head of the group.
However, the gender and age of someone shows significant influence to whether someone would become a chief.
Our chiefs, how old are they?
Of course, we are not generalizing that all chiefs’ ages are between 35 and 45 years old, but through the comparison of the ages of the chiefs and the members, a 16.44% higher percentage of people within the 35~45 age range became chiefs. People aged 35 to 45 are more inclined to be team leaders.
Why?
Perhaps it is because they are more experienced, capable and willing to organize. Perhaps it is because these middle-aged Chinese people believe it is their responsibility and duty to do these jobs. “We may be the indispensable, most stable and critical people in our society.” They have to take care of both their parents and their kids
Gender of the Chiefs
The proportion of women who became chiefs is 20.92% higher than those who do not! The difference in this ratio is astonishing. This difference could be the most important determinant of the question of "what kind of person is more inclined to be the leader". Women are more inclined to be the chiefs
Why women?
This questionnaire projects the contemporary family structure and reveals the roles most women play in an ordinary Chinese family. Generally speaking, the wife/mother is mainly responsible for grocery shopping and cooking. The division of work within each family determines that most of the group leaders during the lockdown period are women. They are the ones who consider the livelihood of the family more and benefit others and themselves.
During the period of lockdown, women shone with their own brilliance, benefiting one community after another without any fear of trouble. During the period of lockdown, everyone became more closely connected. Chiefs brought hope and actual problem solving products.
Summary and Outlook
The significance of Chiefs
This may be an obvious question. For millions of Shanghainese, the chiefs saved everyone during the two-month quarantine period. Chiefs' decisions of becoming the leader of collective buying activities may come from their own helpless conditions as individuals, but their sense of responsibility and persistence to help more people within their communities is what truly makes them shine. Through benefiting others and themselves, they brought hope to their respective communities and across shanghai. As ordinary people they humanely solved everyone's livelihood problems.
At present, Shanghai quarantine has ended. Our chiefs have returned to their respective jobs. The social economy of Shanghai is gradually recovering. It is no longer difficult to purchase supplies. Group buying in the community are no longer necessities to people’s lives, yet some group buying is still retained to provide convenient services for the elderlies in the community.
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