Gwynn Guilford, a reporter and editor for Quartz, wrote about a new
innovation in China where a vending machine stocked with live crabs was placed
on a street in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. The crabs had hairy
claws which were especially popular in China. The machine is restocked daily
and each crab costs around $3,27 with the crab vinegar and two bags of ginger
tea already included. Mr. Liu, owner of the vending machine, emphasized that
they are the first company in Hangzhou to have such a special machine. He also
said that the machine gave the people an opportunity to eat crabs anytime they
want. However, the original machine was created by the Gaochun Double
Lake Crab Company that sold their latest machine to Mr. Liu. Shi Tuanjie,
chairman of Double Lake Company, described that their machine is set in a
temperature of 5-10°C so that the crabs can be in a dormant state. Another
thing special about their product is on the crab packaging because they
designed a box that made the crabs feel like they are in a cave. Many other
shops adopted the method of binding the crab’s claw which will affect on its
flavor, therefore the crabs from Double Lake Company stands out compared to the
other places. Moreover, the container
can also be dropped into boiling water together with the crab so it guaranteed
the consumer’s safety. Despite all these advantages, the company did not gain
much profit with this machine since it was only successful as a marketing
stunt. Although, Liu has more chance to succeed since he is planning to boost
his own brand of crabs that provided a higher quality of crabs compared to the
Double Lake Company.
Guilford used a relaxed and conversational writing
in her essay in order to inform the readers about the new vending machine stocked
with live crabs placed on a street in Hangzhou. The simple vocabularies and the
easy sentence structure make the whole essay easy to read and comprehensible
for all ages of audience. She also used bullet points in her article to list the
advantages of the machines from the Double Lake Crab Company so that it is
easier for the readers to understand these traits. There were many estimated
numbers in the article, for example, 200 crabs were sold in a day from Shi`s
original machine and the price of each crab is around $3.27 (20 RMB). In her essay, she
compared the quality of the crabs from Shi`s company and the ones in Liu`s
company in order to show that Liu`s company has more sale advantage over Shi`s
company. It also gives the readers a valid reason of why Double Lake Company
did not restock their vending machines when hairy crab season rolled up in
2011. However, she did not mention about the negative sides of these machines
and the impact on the environment. She only stated briefly that the mortality
rate of the crabs was fairly high, but she did not research more about this
subject. She also could have interviews some customers and get their feedbacks
because this way, her article would become more complex. Overall, she did a
good job in informing the readers about the innovation in China, although she
could have incorporated her article so that it shows both positive and negative
sides of this creation.
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