Costco

It was a deliberate and carefully considered choice to have Costco as the scene for my story the other day. Which story? This one:

https://twenty20vision.home.blog/2020/04/29/telling-tales/

Costco is pretty big, here in Taiwan. It is a popular spot for locals to buy stuff in large quantities. You know… wholesale. The thing is, it’s American, I believe. It has a very specific model. It doesn’t fit with the standard Taiwan model of shopping, or behaviour in general, but it works. People know that it is different, and, for the most part, they act accordingly, although it does take a certain amount of guidance, supervision and control. There are orderly queues of hungry punters waiting patiently for a free sample of something or other. Honestly, it’s extraordinary. The very same punters who cannot wait 3 seconds for me to get across the road safely with my 2-year-old in her pushchair will happiy stand for ten minutes to savour the delights of three toenails of Koko Krunch or 7 milligrams of finest sirloin. Nobody jumps the queue.

More extraordinary is the ramp between the different basement levels of the carpark. There is an up lane and and a down lane, with arrows clearly denoting which is which. Even though it is possible to see some 50 metres ahead, everyone, and I mean everyone (except yours truly, obvs) stays in the appropriate lane. The centre line is sacrosanct. Cross at your peril, even when it is clear that nobody else is on the ramp coming in the opposite direction (and 50 metres of warning would give you at least 5 seconds to get out of the way if Usain Bolt happened to be racing). If only such discipline were transferred to the roads, eh?

The exit ramp is also noteworthy. There is always a man stationed at the top of the ramp, controlling the cars as they leave the basement. Oh, and traffic lights. The light changes to red, so Mr man waves his glowy wand thingummy and blows his whistle. Lots. If he didn’t, most drivers would (one assumes) simply drive forward to block the pavement, thereby impeding the store’s customers from proceding to or from the entrance.

The point is, the behaviour of the Taiwanese people in Costco is different. They follow instructions; they obey the rules; they buy-in to the foreign model without hesitation. To be fair, there’s 7 milligrams of sirloin at stake, here. Steak. Mmmmm!

Hence, my conclusion. It is entirely feasible to direct change for the better, so long as it is explained, measured, monitored, controlled and sustained.

This is why I keep banging on about the contrast between managing the virus epidemic/pandemic (brilliant) and the road deaths and injuries epidemic (ongoing and shite). It just needs to be managed and carefully presented and sold the the general public.

Now, if only Costco managed the roads.