Super Shopper

This week Alan and Cecelia arrived in Suzhou so I've been able to "show off" my Chinese knowledge and experience. I mean after 6 weeks, I'm practically a native right? I'm certainly not an expert but sometimes just a few small insights to local living can be helpful. It didn't take long for me to provide my experiences and tips into living here, less than the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. There's a lot more to learn for all of us. I've still got another 2 months (almost halfway there) before the family arrives to learn more so I'll keep pushing to find new things and pick up new information on the area between now and then.

Today (Saturday) I took them on a little trip around the area to see what can be seen. We stopped by a local supermarket, a western supermarket and then went to Bar Street to see some places along that street. I took them by the entrance of the Master of the Nets garden to see Kuojiatou Lane. This is a narrow old street market area with many small vendors selling just about everything. For the first time since I've been here I took a long look into the shops to look at a North Face jacket. These jackets are all over in Suzhou and are very popular with the Expats. I went into the shop with Cecelia and the older guy was pointing out the jackets to me. I looked at one that had a zip out fleece liner (which can be worn as it's own jacket) and had a Gore-Tex outer shell. It was a very nice jacket and I looked closely to determine how much of it was a knock-off. Typically you can determine knock offs by looking at some of the detail items like the draw string attachments, the zippers, the snap buttons, etc. The poorer knock off items will have just plain zippers and snaps, etc. The better ones will have pull strings with the North Face name and logo. Plus the better ones will have the Gore-Tex material and the shop owner will demonstrate by pouring water over the jacket to show how the water beads and rolls off. Anyhow, this was a higher quality jacket (not really for spring or summer, more of a fall/winter jacket) since it had North Face everywhere, the liner, the snaps, everywhere but the main zipper pull. I looked really closely at it while the shop keeper kept talking away, I ignored him since I couldn't understand but a few things. "Good quality", "Good price", "you like", etc. It was what I had been looking for and although I won't need the inner lining for some time, I know the rainy season is coming and my spring jacket isn't going to cut it since it's lost much of the ability to repel water. So I asked him how much for the jacket. He grabs his calculator and punches in 885, which signals me that it's 885 RMB. I just stared at him, "Good price". I shook my head and talked to Cecelia for a minute. He clears the calculator and shows me 750. I said too expensive and shook my head. I really didn't need the jacket right now so I wasn't going to buy anyhow. I spoke some more to Cecelia just about the price and stuff, just to show what's around the shop and talk a little bit about the market area. The shop keeper kept indicating to me to punch in my price to the calculator, "you", "you". I was trying to do the math in my head and remember all of the tips, start at 50% of the first price, start at 40% of the first price, walk away, etc. (Use the force Luke) I said no and would not type in a price. I just kept ignoring him when he put the calculator in my face, "your price, your price". I kept saying no and talking to Cecelia when he grabbed me and said, "looka, good price" and showed me 320 on the calculator. Less than $50 for a rainjacket with a removeable fleece inner liner. When he showed me that price, I said OK and then we just had to work through the color and size. His assistant helped me try on the jackets and find the right size. I thought the Large was still a little big but when you pull the draw strings and such, it actually is about the right size (it gives me room to grow, a medium would've worked except for the arm lengths were too short).

So now I've gone through my first negotiation with the local merchants. I really didn't do anything except wait for him to drop his price. I didn't go in expecting to buy (which gives me all the power in the world) and I never told him how much I was willing to pay, until he hit a price I thought was reasonable. If I had negotiated like I read about, I probably would've started off at about 440 RMB and we would've haggled back and forth from there in the wrong direction since it's a give and take and I'll bet the price would've been in the 500 RMB area when it was over. I would not have purchased at that level so maybe it would've gone down but if he was willing to sell to me at 320, he might have jumped at 440. In all honesty, I don't know if I got a good deal or not from an experienced Expat perspective but in my mind I got a good deal and all I did was just indicate I wasn't going to buy. Tammy will probably be much better at this than me since she's a bargain shopper and she knows what something costs, I'm less market savvy (and that's being kind). I know she's itching to see these markets and negotiate prices and stuff. She's a shopper (need some retail therapy) and now that she can have a large influence on the price....watch out Suzhou merchants!

I've learned that sometimes in negotiations, you don't have to say anything. Everyone here has told me that in many cases, you state a price and hold to it, if they don't budge then you walk away. If they want you to buy, they will chase you down the street. In retrospect, I could've just kept watching and waiting for a price but getting the jacket at about 35% of his original asking price seemed to be okay at the time. Later in the evening, when I asked Eric and Trish how much they paid for the similar jackets, I found out that I've got to be more cutthroat. They indicated that I paid about double what they did (DOH!). Okay, lesson taken. Eric said he will show me how to negotiate when we take a trip to Shanghai and see the copy market. He will be Mister Miyagi and I will be the Karate Kid (wax on, wax off).

One last thing, in our cab ride to Bar Street we ended up in a long string of traffic trying to turn right to cross the canal to the old city. Our cab driver decided that the traffic was too much and we weren't going to just sit there and wait for it to clear. So, he pulled into the oncoming traffic lane and started to pass the traffic. When a car came from the other direction, he would pull as close as he could to the traffic in the right hand lane (aka, the correct lane...just to clarify, it was a standard two-lane road) and wait for them to pass and then it was step on it and go-go-go. We must've passed 30 cars and just as he got to the front of the line of traffic, the light turned green so he turned right across the face of the car waiting at the light (who was going straight) on to the bridge and on to bar street. It was the first time they had ever seen anything like that. Me....it's old hat, I didn't even blink an eye. I thought he was a great cab driver because he saved us a lot of time sitting in the car waiting (maybe even a whole 2 minutes). I guess I'm starting to become acclimated to how they drive which is probably not a good thing.