What else did I do this week? It went by so quickly... Oh I know what I did! My colleagues and I went shopping at the local bargain market twice. We went out for LONG lunch breaks to go to the nearby market. It's a whole floor of little stalls filled with clothes and shoes. I found an image online since I no long have a camera without my iPhone. It's this packed during the day!
This type of market place is set up for major bargains. Since I have a southern Chinese accent, I'm at a disadvantage. This is because we are traditionally known to be more wealthy, more sophisticated, and more easily fooled by northerners. I don't know how many times I have walked into a store, looking like a bum, and still be treated like a queen. This is not good. Once they find out you are from the south, their eyes look like this $$. And if they find out that you are from Taiwan, then they have three eyes $$$. IF they find out that you are from the US? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
So my colleague Yang decided to rescue me. She has a very explosive personality, and loves to go shopping and haggle. She is in the marketing department and often has to take clients out to dinner, buy them gifts etc. She knows the trade so well that she can probably do it in her sleep. On the other hand, my other colleague Yu is an engineer and has a more mellow personality. She likes to watch the show but does not really enjoy shopping at the market.
Don't open your mouth, Yang said.
And look at an item like you are not very interested, and definitely let me be the one naming the price. She continued.
We walked up and down the narrow shopping corridors as we looked for items that we may fancy. I spotted a pair of jeans. For some reason I was fixated on the idea that I need yet ANOTHER pair of jeans. For climbing outside in the cold, I told myself. I asked her how much it cost. The salesperson heard my accent, and gave me a very high price 125 RMB. Yang gave me the Chinese stank eye. It was too late to recover once I opened my mouth. She tried to haggle it down, but it was too late. Five minutes later, I was exhausted listening to them as both sides knock each other up and down by 5 RMB increments at a time.
Why don't I give you 80RMB, I finally lost my patience and said.
That's fine, the seller replied. And we exchanged goods.
We moved away to the next station, with Yang on one side of me and Yu on the other, with their arms wrapped around mine like I'm their shared boyfriend. (FYI: ladies in many parts of Asia love to hold hands, or have their arms around, etc.) Yang shook her head as if I just made the biggest sin in the world.
Yang spotted a Diesel leather wallet that looks like this one. We are not sure if it's real or not, but it looked decent. The seller asked for 160 RMB, and they claimed that they didn't negotiate. Yang didn't care, and started yelling prices back at them. They just smiled and said that it was the lowest price already. So Yang said, OK, then why don't I give you 150 RMB. The seller hesitated but finally agreed on that price. As Yang had the new wallet in her possession, she dished out her cash. She laid 135 RMB out on the table, and told them that this is all they are going to get. Then she swiftly grabbed us along with her and walked away before the sellers even had a chance to talk back at her. I heard some cursing in the background and them yelling THIEF! but they didn't run after us to tell us to pay up either. Now that's some real skills!
Apparently you guys also got fooled on 4/1! We got rain today in Beijing but you guys got SNOW!
No Gunks and Farley this weekend, you fools!
shit! i wanna take that girl car shopping. and indeed we had a great day at farley ;)
ReplyDelete