Ethnic Canadian Honey on Sale but not original Canadian version? Really?

dontai — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:11:03 +0000

Sometimes our Canadian multiculturalism goes a little too far, even for a Chinese Canadian like myself. Here in Toronto, Canada and especially in Scarborough, my area of the world is biased towards Chinese, especially from the Mainland. Nofrills, a local big box grocer, decides to put Billy Bee Honey, 1 litre bottle on sale for $6.88CAD. This is high quality Canadian honey, which I have used for many years without issue. At the store I pick up four bottles and head to the cash, only to find that those I picked up are not the ones advertised on sale. The difference between the two: the advertised honey has an English-Chinese label and the one I picked up has an English only label. It was annoying to have to drop my bottles of honey at the cash, reenter the store and purchase what Nofrills calls “ethnic” Billy Bee honey. I am all for ethnic but please do not discriminate against English only labels and products. Nofrills, intended or not, you need a smack upside the head.

Billy Bee Honey: Bottle on the right called ethnic is on sale, the one on the left is not

If you regularly read my blog you know I have lived in China and Japan for a couple of years and live in a heavily Chinese area of Toronto. I really enjoy living where I can buy fresh produce from a Chinese store served by Mandarin speakers. These local grocers, however, are specialty stores that represent all ethnic groups here in Toronto. To compete the large big box grocers have decided to “Chinese” up their offerings. I see an increase in Chinese signage and advertising for Nofrills and other grocers in my area. It started with “Do not peel the corn”, or “Please place litter in trash bin” in-store signage in Chinese. These are appreciated and appropriate.

Billy Bee Honey: Bottle with English-Chinese label on sale, bottle with English only label is not. UPC codes are different

The sale on Billy Bee honey(Nofrills flyer, Dec 31-Jan 6 2011), “ethnic” version only crosses the line. To have the regularly labeled English version not on sale and to promote the English Chinese version simply makes no sense. I have purchased and used both products and they are identical in volume, quality, consistency, packaging and price. They are marketed side by side on the shelves of Nofrills and at the same price. The two products are simply identical, save the paper label and UPC code. Billy Bee Honey as stated on both labels is a mix of Canadian and Argentine honey. I wondered if the ethnic version was a mixture of Canadian and China honey, but alas, no. Maybe we should rightly have an English-Argentine version.

For those that cannot read Chinese, the Chinese on the label is a direct translation of the English and no more. No, Mom, the Chinese does not talk behind your back about how you dress or any other nonsense. We are talking strictly about honey.

To be denied the sale price for the English labeled Billy Bee honey feels discriminatory, and I see no financial benefit. All it seems to do is infuriate fellow Canadians who dislike the invasion of Chinese in their neighbourhood. Long time neighbours, mostly white and retired, want to shop in English, and I see no advantage in not allowing them to purchase their beloved Billy Bee Honey, on sale, in their language of choice: English.

Is this difficult for Nofrills to understand? Apparently so. I called the Nofrills customer service line at 1-866-987-6453 to tell them about this and their response was blah, blah, blah, blah, really, blah, blah, We will check with marketing, thanks for calling, blah, blah. Why do I even bother calling them to complain, I do not know. Useless. They do not even call me back to tell me the status of my complaint, because they do not even ask for my name or phone number. If I take the time to phone in a complaint I expect the company to take the time to call me back in a symbiotic manner. Idiots.

Google.com loses it’s English voice

dontai — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:18:56 +0000

I like Google, I really do. It’s my primary search engine. I like their university roots and what they’ve done. There’s no question they have shaped and nurtured the internet in a way no other search engine has done. Searches come back lickety split and Google Scholar is awesome. Their photos and news section are tops.

I can input both English and Chinese (Mandarin, ç®€ä½“å—) on my computer. Mostly I type English, and every so often I do Chinese. Sometimes I like to torture myself by going to Mainland China and Singapore websites to read Chinese. It’s not often but a little searing pain between the ears helps you appreciate what you have. A reasonable memory for Chinese words. And English.

Today was not intended to be one of those painful days, and certainly I’ve not done anything painful previously while on Google.com. I logged in to my account, in English, as normal and went to update my personal information. After I clicked “Create a profile”, the whole screen went Chinese. It said if I needed help, click here (in Chinese). What I needed help on was how to get back to my native language. Back I went to the previous page, went to another Google link on my account, which was English. Nice. I input my country as Canada, and my language as English. Surely that would do it.

As I navigated through the labyrinth of Google screens, I felt something was chasing me. More Chinese screens were popping up. I’d backtrack and they’d disappear. Then my once previously English screens started turning Chinese. The more I tried to run, the more they appeared in front of me. If they were people, I’d be able to ask them, in fluent Mandarin, what the hell are you doing? Stand aside so the English screens can come through. This was not possible. I could only wonder in amazement how Google could so vividly come to life. Today, Google truly freaked me out.

I could not stand it any longer. I clicked my other tabs to other web sites and resumed my computing, all without issue, in English. After a couple more minutes, I thought that the Google Chinese people would have grown tired of “helping me”, become bored (Stooping down on their haunches. There’s nothing to see here. I’m a Chinese person speaking Chinese. If you want action go see that foreigner over there), and move on, but no, they were still present.

I switched to Google.ca. They must know that Canada is not China, that there are few Chinese people here. Chinese people only account for 4.3% of Canada’s population. I found this document with, you guessed it, Google.ca. Surely Google would go English on me from the soil of Canada. Alas, no. Once past the first couple of screens, the Chinese Google people kept after me, yearning and pleading to go to their side, to switch over. Let it be, dudes, we’re multilingual here in Canada, and it’s Ok

I’d had enough playing with Google Chinese people. I logged onto a nearby computer that seemingly was not haunted by Google Chinese people. Reassuringly, Google acted normally, as good friends always should.

Whatever new technology Google has in store for the future, I hope it does not include Google Chinese people chasing me through the Google labyrinth. Surreal, yes. Helpful, no. I am not a technology neophyte, but whatever Google has in store for us, this technology needs to have it’s bugs worked out. I’ll wait for version 2, and then not install it.

Don Tai (Canada) Blog » Mandarin

Ethnic Canadian Honey on Sale but not original Canadian version? Really?

Google.com loses it’s English voice