Metropolitan prosperity is one conception Hong Kong government holds so tightly to its heart but inequality of all kinds has been always lurking underneath the city, grumbling to break out to the surface. With a staggeringly high Gini coefficient (0.53) as an indication of rather severe income equality, Hong Kong might be near the tipping point of full-on social unrest even though the officials would never admit such harsh facts. The uniquely commercial dynamics of Hong Kong is in fact bound to induce a series of problems driven by economic inequality. To pick one product to produce a comprehensive reflection of the whole matter is a formidable task for the very problem is closely linked to various realms of areas like urban planning, the hidden stratification hierarchy and so forth. And so, we organized well our objectives - we aimed to investigate the correlations between the urban planning and economic inequality in Hong Kong through analyzing the price variations of a can of Coca Cola(330 ml).
Why Coca Cola?
Initially, each of us came up with different ideas during the selection of the object: pineapple bun, lemon tea, cookies…but in the end, we still deemed Coca Cola as the one with the highest suitability for the project. The rationale behind our decision is actually quite easy to understand: We set 3 criteria for the test objects and Coca Cola fits all three of them. |
1. High uniformity and consistency Coca Cola get produced and distributed by the same company and thus the quality of the products is with high uniformity. This factor honestly was extremely crucial to raise the accuracy of this little investigation. It basically helped exclude a great deal of internal factors, like variation of production costs, customers’ personal preference over certain “products” or flavor, etc.We hoping that it could help reflect the actual state/levels of inequality triggered by the spatial planning of the city. |
2. High affordability Coca Cola as a product is highly affordable for nearly all walks of life, all classes of the society. It can be as cheap as just $3 (according to our research).Its high affordability ensures that the product itself is frequently consumed by people with different social status, which implies a more authentic conclusion could be drawn as economic inequality affects the society as a whole; it’s not exclusive to the needy solely. |
3. High Accessibility Owing to the high affordability, demands for Coca Cola are believed to be generated throughout most districts of Hong Kong, making the product itself highly accessible. In other words, you can buy coke very easily. Plus there’s no age restriction for Coca Cola! This can ensure that we were researching a product of wide distribution, hence more accurately reflecting the impacts of economic equality in different parts of Hong Kong. |
Distance Covered
In case the map link in the picture above can't work, here's the link:
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/tour/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAvqOvuQkM
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/tour/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAvqOvuQkM
Okay. I know this is the "Distance Covered" part but here're some research methods for our research, which shall be explained first.
You might find it rather strange that in the map, it seems that we took pictures of both bottles and cans of Coca Cola? Why is that? Well, that's because the decision on whether to use a can of coke or a bottle of coke hadn't been finalized (we decided to use a can of coke in the end) until we had gathered enough data and organize them in an excel file. Only until then did we decide to use a can (330ml) can of coke as our object. And with some unfortunate misunderstandings, we missed some opportunities taking pictures of cans of coke in certain area. Two words to take away from this? - Be decisive.
Alright, back to "Distance Covered", we went across all four main parts of Hong Kong
- New Territories(Shatin, Tai Wai, Tai Po and Kwai Chung), Kowloon(Kowloon Tong and Kwun Tong), Hong Kong Island (Central), and Outlying Islands( Mui Wo and Tai O).
We originally thought that convenience stores and supermarkets would be our main targets. And...we were wrong. As we probed deeper into our data collection process, we found that restaurants and local grocery stores were great places to explore the issue as well! Oh and it's fair to say we can all really feel the omnipresence of convenience stores in Hong Kong. They are literally everywhere, literally.
Below is a short video as a visual documentation of the "distance covered" (the actual geographical conditions of certain areas) or just merely an attempt to capture the feeling of this project. I didn't have much time to make the video so I thought choosing a right song for it would be of even greater importance than usual. For that, I was really happy that I happened to think of "I will follow" by u2 when i needed it. (No copyrights infringement intended)
You might find it rather strange that in the map, it seems that we took pictures of both bottles and cans of Coca Cola? Why is that? Well, that's because the decision on whether to use a can of coke or a bottle of coke hadn't been finalized (we decided to use a can of coke in the end) until we had gathered enough data and organize them in an excel file. Only until then did we decide to use a can (330ml) can of coke as our object. And with some unfortunate misunderstandings, we missed some opportunities taking pictures of cans of coke in certain area. Two words to take away from this? - Be decisive.
Alright, back to "Distance Covered", we went across all four main parts of Hong Kong
- New Territories(Shatin, Tai Wai, Tai Po and Kwai Chung), Kowloon(Kowloon Tong and Kwun Tong), Hong Kong Island (Central), and Outlying Islands( Mui Wo and Tai O).
We originally thought that convenience stores and supermarkets would be our main targets. And...we were wrong. As we probed deeper into our data collection process, we found that restaurants and local grocery stores were great places to explore the issue as well! Oh and it's fair to say we can all really feel the omnipresence of convenience stores in Hong Kong. They are literally everywhere, literally.
Below is a short video as a visual documentation of the "distance covered" (the actual geographical conditions of certain areas) or just merely an attempt to capture the feeling of this project. I didn't have much time to make the video so I thought choosing a right song for it would be of even greater importance than usual. For that, I was really happy that I happened to think of "I will follow" by u2 when i needed it. (No copyrights infringement intended)
The Results And Reflection
- 5 Most expensive cans of coke As it turned out, the most expensive cans coke are mainly located at New Town Plaza, Shatin.. It's indeed true that most of them were found in restaurants, where products' prices are usually inflated to compensate the expense of the customers' service provided by the restaurants themselves. | |
The type of shops as a factor, for sure, has certain effects on the price as well. What pushes up the actual price of the products or service would be the rent. Yes, the rent. This is not a little known.fact that the shop rent in New Town Plaza has been sky-high for the last 5-10 years. Frankly, unless it's a brand name store or a fairly high-end restaurant, a shop would in no way survive a month in New Town Plaza. That led us to review the crux of the whole scenario more thoroughly. Then the four little words popped up in our group's minds- failure of urban planning. But actually, when we dug deeper, it's more than that. Is it really just mere failure of urban planning? Well, no. At least not to me. You see, I think the urban planning for the Shatin was once a triumphant success. It granted "Shatinzens" ease to shop fairly priced products, buy a fairly priced property and generally speaking, a great place to live in. It was designed be a residential area for the "Shatinzens". But then oh no. The government ceased to catch up with the latest status of the region. With the influx of mainland tourists, New Town Plaza, with a MTR/ train station located right inside, attracts tourists like a honey pot. More and more brand-name/high-end stores move in as the rent keeps on surging. Soon, local shops and shops provide cheaper products closed down one by one. And now, you simply can't find a shop which sells cheap products in the shopping mall these days. New Town Plaza wasn't designed to be a tourist spot but Hong Kong government lacked such motivations to keep track on the latest needs and development of different regions, which leads to cases like the New Town Plaza. And to this date, the situation still gets no improvement and the income inequality is worsen as the needy are forced to shop at somewhere less convenient as New Town Plaza and the rich can afford to shop at those high-end shops for their daily needs in the Plaza.
As to the deliberate lack of mentioning of the prices of coke found in convenience shops, that's because I noticed that there's price-fixing of the products in those shops like the 7-11 and a can of coke seems to always stay at the $7.5 level regardless of the shop locations. Thus, I sort of neglect that part of data as it cannot reflect income equality effectively here in our project.
As to the deliberate lack of mentioning of the prices of coke found in convenience shops, that's because I noticed that there's price-fixing of the products in those shops like the 7-11 and a can of coke seems to always stay at the $7.5 level regardless of the shop locations. Thus, I sort of neglect that part of data as it cannot reflect income equality effectively here in our project.
- 5 Cheapest cans of coke For the cheapest products, the common link among them would appears to be their distinctly similar location. They are found in different districts but how come I would say they share high similarity? Well, here's the explanation: except for the can found in Cityu, they were all spotted at places right at or near public (rental) housing estates. This result and that of expensive products actually reveals the spatial equality in Hong Kong. The underprivileged are trapped in certain area to shop whilst the wealthy's mobility to shop remains, if not thrust, to be very high. | |
For the case of CityU, I believe it's due to some subsidy from the university itself or the coca cola company's special discounts for the university for its bulk purchasing of their products, which are all over the campus.
All in all, the matter of economic inequality is deeply ingrained in Hong Kong society now. And that's not something that could be eradicated easily. Thoughtful urban planning and review systems have to be initiated and put into actions promptly lest the ageing population problem might only add fuel to the fire.
*Oh and about the price-fixing from the coke company itself, I have found no direct/apparent proof to it. And "thank you" to my group mates for it weren't for them and their efforts, the project wouldn't be able to probe into the issue at different regions of Hong Kong.
All in all, the matter of economic inequality is deeply ingrained in Hong Kong society now. And that's not something that could be eradicated easily. Thoughtful urban planning and review systems have to be initiated and put into actions promptly lest the ageing population problem might only add fuel to the fire.
*Oh and about the price-fixing from the coke company itself, I have found no direct/apparent proof to it. And "thank you" to my group mates for it weren't for them and their efforts, the project wouldn't be able to probe into the issue at different regions of Hong Kong.