They may not have known it, but the shoppers who picked up melons at the bargain price of $1 per pound at ParknShop last weekend were enjoying the first fruits of Hong Kong's technology revolution.
For decades Wellcome and ParknShop enjoyed stable profits and a 70 per cent market share.
Then, Apple Daily entrepreneur Jimmy Lai Chee-ying launched his adMart service, which takes orders by phone and the Internet and delivers goods by van. The giants had to cut prices.
Without any conventional stores, adMart is a prototype electronic business, or 'e-business', says Cannie Tsang Wan-shun, project manager at Asia Research, an information technology market research firm.
'adMart is doing a very good job in introducing people to e-business,' she says.
'It is good to get services that really get the public involved. This year is a point of change.' Some businesses in Hong Kong have enjoyed success with technology, even in apparently traditional fields (see 'Hi-tech tailored to local needs').
But statistics show that e-business, the technology that can affect any firm irrespective of their business, has yet to hit Hong Kong with full force.