The Night Market and Yashow Clothing Market

Continuing on with our adventures in Beijing, Vinny and I went to the night market based a recommendation from one of my volunteers from Columbia. It was very cold and we got there kind of late so a lot of the stalls were packing up. There were definitely quite a few interesting items of food for sale, I believe I saw snails skewered like a kabob at one stand. We met a very nice woman from California at the market. She adopted 3 girls from China and when each of her daughters turns 10, she takes them back to China to learn about where they were born and the culture. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. She said Vinny's Mandarin tones were really good which I know made him very happy :)

So now onto the Yashow Clothing Market. It's like Chinatown x 10 when it comes to knock-offs. I wasn't in the greatest mood that day but I really wanted to go because I promised a certain Good Morning songbird I would try to get her a pair of Ugg boots and a North Face. Immediately when we walked in, two of the salespeople overhead me talking to Vinny about getting a North Face and they immediately accosted us and said, "We have North Face!" At this market, the North Face display jackets are hidden and you have to inquire about them, just like Chinatown. Hmmmm how similar... I found a black one that looked pretty good but the girl told me 600 yuan. I thought that was a little pricey and she ended up dropping the price down to 300 yuan. The bargaining is crazy because they just punch a number in the calculator. You state or punch your price back in. And then the further away you walk, the seller keeps lowering the price on his/her calculator. Most of the sellers were women though. I didn't really know the price so I just said no thank you and walked away.

Onto the basement, we found the knock-off shoe department. If I wasn't in such a bad mood, I might have shopped for shoes for myself but I just wanted to get Ugg boots and get out. We received price quotes of 280-500 yuan. I walked further back into the floor (note to other bargainers, always try to bargain with the sellers on the inside since they have a harder time attracting customers due to their location and are a little more lenient when lowering prices). I finally agreed on 100 yuan for a pair of Uggs with the two women who ran the booth. After I tried them on to make sure they would fit morningbird's feet, the seller had the audacity to ask me what I was going to pay. At this point, I was tired, hungry, and even more grumpy so I started to get a little snippity. I told her we had already agreed on 100 yuan and if she wasn't going to take that price, I didn't need the boots. She still insisted on a higher price and asked for 120 yuan. At this point, I got up and started to walk away, I was just fed up. She waited 5 seconds and then called me back and said she would take 100 yuan.

So this was when I lost it. I started to lecture both women on how rude and unethical their sales skills were. I told them 1) we had agreed on a price 2) I found their tactics of trying to raise the price rude 3) not to call me a friend b/c they certainly weren't 4) if they wanted customers, their sales tactics sucked. I let them have it for about 5 whole minutes and honestly if I could have afforded it, I would have just walked to the next booth and bought the exact same pair of Ugg boots for twice their asking price just to annoy them. After they apologized profusely and insisted that they were just "joking" about raising the price (mhmmm), granted I was a little rude back because I was so upset but I just gave her the money, grabbed my boots and stormed off. Moral of the story: Treat me like I'm a walking dollar sign, expect a disgruntled Thuan. Treat me like a human being, I'll gladly buy your stuff at a fair price even if it's higher.

Oh well... on the bright side morningbird, I also bought you a Northface for 150 yuan at another vendor. Oh bargaining... I do miss the US and its set prices.

Next blog: Xi'An and the Terracotta Warriors