Bargaining in Beijing

[adrianlondon]

My first jiangjia experience. At Yaxiu market in Sanlitun.

A friend of ours had been to one stall a few days before (they're not actually stalls, but like very tiny shops in a multi-storey covered market) and bargained like crazy on a winter jacket - a fake copy of some branded one (Ecko), but good quality. Examining mine closely, it might not actually be a fake, but a regect as the logo sewn inside the jacket is a bit off although the actual quality of manufacture really looks totally spot on. Full of duck feather and down (apparently), lots of pockets and detachable hood.

He'd haggled & haggled down to 150kuai. So a tenner (UKP) for this jacket. But, he'd argued in a way that when the guy said 200kuai, he'd replied "ok, I'm not interested any more. Bye" and walked off. The guy then said "ok, come back" but my friend had haggled in such a way that he didn't want to go back. So he says. I didn't really understand, but hey. Anyway, he still wanted the jacket and said it would be a good bargaining experience for me. Go in there and try to get the jacket for 150kuai (or up to 180 if he wouldn't go so low with me, as I have a white face; our friend is an Aussie-BC).

So, in I went. Looked at the jacket, tried it on, decided I wanted one too. This conversation was half in Chinese and half in English. I tended to use Chinese and the shopkeeper tended to use English! Anyway ..... how much is this? 650kuai. Wow. OK, so the same of bullshit begins.

He explains how this is a coat that the emperor himself would have loved to have worn, if only he could afford it and if such wonderful manufacturing techniques were available back in those days. I explain that I'm actually holding a piece of dog excrement made by a blind and armless 5 year old girl kidnapped from Laos, and I only want it because some starving Ethiopian is freezing to death and this coat might keep him warm for a few minutes before it falls apart.

100kuai I say. I felt funny doing this, because it's rather a big difference to the 650 he said, but as I'm meant to get it for 150, what else could I do? hahahaha goes the shopkeeper. ok, ok, ok, how about this? 450? and he gets his "big display bargaining foreigner special" calculator out to emphasise the point and show that the game is on.

What can I say? I can't just fold my arms, smirk, and say 100kuai. Can I? Maybe I'm not good enough yet. So I offer 150kuai. That's it, right up to my main price straight away. He counters with 350. Me? hahahahahahaha. My turn to laugh. I can get a jacket similar to this one, ok maybe not quite as good, for 100kuai, I say, so 150 is my top offer. He counters with 300 but quickly changes it to 250. Now, I know I've won. I know I can say 200kuai and we can make the sale. I was feeling good. 650 down to 200! Wow. But wait, my friend had managed to haggle him down to 150 in the end, even if he had to resort to a bit of arguing rather than the (actually very very) friendly banter we were having. It is, after all, just a game. He got bored waiting for me to counter with 200 and so did so himself. Now, I later heard from one of our crowd that she'd seen a local person bargain and, when it got close to the price they wanted to pay, they took the money from their wallet (the price they wanted to pay, obviously) and said "take it, you have a sale". I didn't think of this, so just said "200? I'll need to think about it".

I walked to the stall next door with another friend and said "200 is a good price, I'm sure our friend will be happy with that, maybe I should find him and see what he says". Then the shopkeeper from next door comes out and whispers "ok ok come back". So I did, and bought two jackets for 300 kuai. Saving 1000kuai from the original price of 650kuai each. A notional saving, but still.

Great fun, and it's a really nice, warm, padded jacket.

I had a bit of a high after that, and wanted to rush back to University and haggle over my accommodation "what? 2000kuai per month? I'll give you 50 and I'm only staying here to do you a favour. Your rooms are horrible, small and dirty, and mongolian farmers laugh at how antiquated it is. I only live here so I can be on campus and help the university's reputation". However, my other friends wanted to stay in the clothes market.

Emboldened by my haggling experience I then found a really nice tshirt I wanted. It was under a sign saying "Export Quality" which is code for "this is not fake shit". I saw a Converse tshirt. I was actually wearing one at the time! I got it for £5 in London in a sale. The one here looked better than mine, so I asked the price. 80kuai. About £5.50. hahahahahahahahhha says I. For that piece of crap? I'll give you 20kuai. No bargaining here "bu keyi jiang jia!" says the shopkeeper with a stern face. Oh well.

Later, I sent Laura (an expert bargainer whose technique appears to be to solely use English and say how bad all the stock is until the shopkeeper virtually gives her what she wants to stop scaring away the other potential customers). Hey, Laura, I say. Look at that stall, don't those tshirts look good? Yeah, she says. Off she goes. A few minutes later she's back, looking all dejected. They wouldn't let me bargain, she complains. Cool. It wasn't just me.

Then I found another tshirt; this time a standard one with a picture of the Great Wall. He wanted 60 so I offered 10. He then offered 50 and I 20. He 40 and I ... 20. He 30 and I 20. I got it for 20 and I'm sure the shopkeeper was happy.

We did hear a rumour (from Laura) that some American bloke paid 100kuai for a pair of socks. That made us all laugh.

[DrinkDrankDrunk]

Good read. Now don't get too cocky now heheh. I do the walk-away method every time and they always sent someone, usually a small child, to hunt me down and bring me back. I find the stuffing-them-with-your-cash-offer-and-explicitly-taking-away-merchandise while saying 'swan le, my gay wuo ba' effective as well, especially when done by the locals. Don't forget to point out flaws in the quality(even if there aren't any) as a further bargaining point.

One of my biggest vices is that I can't say no to old ladies; I will always buy useless articles and those aromatic white flowers on pigeon wire that you clip on your neckline from them, always.