To close our first day in the city (after visiting Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City), we headed over to the silk market, which is a place famous for great deals on fake... everythings.
Watches, purses, shoes, jewelery, golf clubs, electronics, you get the idea. Its like 5 floors of mayhem. Vendors grab your arm, lots of broken English gets shouted in your face, and you learn very quickly that you can't move through the aisles efficiently and be polite - you must choose one or the other. It's definitely an experience.
I had already purchased two belts, and Staci had picked up a purse or two after being there for an hour. I started negotiating for two pairs of Deisel shoes. The lady started at 1600 RMB for two pairs of shoes. That's over $200 US, which is as much or more than I'd pay for the real ones in America. Every vendor starts like this, apparently for the 2 people in the complex that don't realize that everything here is fake.
I ended up getting the price down to around $40 US per pair, which I thought was decent. Right before I pulled out my money to pay, some European gentleman slinks by behind us and kind of whispers to me that I shouldn't pay more than $15 US for anything. I wasn't completely sure whether to believe him, but I didn't think I had anything to lose. I turned back to the lady I was dealing with that I wanted the shoes for $15 per pair.
She flipped out. She pointed at the gentleman that had enlightened us and screamed at him. "Why you playing games?!" and "What you doing?!!!" Unhappy, she turned to me and said, "OK, give me $30" Thinking she'd conceded, I pulled out 200 RMB ($30 US) and handed it to her. She reached in my bag, removed one of the two pairs of shoes, and quickly handed my money to her male co-worker, and tried to push us out of the store.
I forced a laugh and said quickly "noooooo, thats not fair". And then I asked for my money back. She refused, and the gentleman that now had my money started to walk away.
This time, I flipped out. I mean, FLIPPED out. I went from playful to raging in about 2 seconds when I realized what was going on. First, I tried to stop the guy who shoved my money in his pocket. "Hey, I don't want these shoes, give me back my money." All he would reply with is "That's impossible". My blood pressure is rising just thinking about all this.
I then got up in the lady's face telling her she was dishonest and cheating me. She was screaming back at me that I was cheating her by seeming interested at $40 per pair. I was making absolutely no headway in getting my money back, so I just kept getting louder and more aggressive. Everybody within 50 feet was watching us yell back and forth. Poor Staci was just trying to keep the peace.
I escalated to "You dishonest mother fuckers! I don't want your fucking shoes, so give me back my mother fucking money!" It was bad. At one point I threatened to call the police, which delighted the guy that had my money. I found out later that he'd have won if the police showed up, so I'm glad I didn't press on that. People nearby were shouting too, one of the little Chinese boys watching kept yelling "give him back his money!" which I appreciated.
While the show was on, Staci was working with a vendor from a nearby store to resolve the situation without anybody going to jail. The other vendor found the shoes that were removed from my bag and put them back in, but at that point I didn't want anything from these people. Staci was begging me to go at this point, and all the nearby vendors knew my screaming wasn't good for their business, so they convinced me to just take my two pairs of shoes and leave.
As we walked away, the cheating bitch screams "I hate Americans! Money! money! money!" It shouldn't have affected me as much as it did - but she got in my head. I was still enraged, but I immediately felt ashamed that I'd given her a bad impression of Americans. I'm over that now, though. Fuck her.
We went back two days later and avoided that booth like the plague. Everybody else was upfront and honest and fun to talk to and bargain with. For anybody visiting in the future, here's how it works (mostly from an email I sent mindy a week before she arrived):
Have fun at the silk market. There are only three rules:I'll include pictures in another post of all the crazy stuff we bought.Here's how an average shoe purchase works:
- Be polite, but always stand your ground.
- Make sure they produce your change before you give them the money.
- The more it looks like you've already purchased, the less you'll get fucked with over prices. They'll know you're not just yanking them around, and they'll know that you know how the system works. We actually brought bags with us (from our hotel) the second time we went specifically for this effect. It worked.
Me: How much for these new balances?
Them: Oh, these are very good quality. These are 1700RMB.
Me: Oh dear, thats too expensive. Give me your best price.
Them: Ok. Ok. I do special deal for you. This is for friend. Not for business, this for friend. 1650 RMB
Me: Haha -- thats still too expensive! Its ok, thank you.
Them: Ok (grabbing me) Ok, what is your price? (handing me a calculator)
Me: (typing) 150RMB
Them: (utterly shocked) NO! No, that is below cost! Don't joke! That price is for other shoes, of cheaper quality. This real leather! (sometimes they actually burn the leather with a lighter. we saw this trick many times) I can't do that price. Here (grabbing calculator) is my best price... 1250 RMB
Me: Okay, thats okay. Thank you, I'm going to look around.
Them: No no no! Ok, name your price. Give me a little more.
Me: 150 RMB
Them: A little more
Me: 150 RMB
Them: 500 RMB
Me: 150 RMB
(this goes on for 4 minutes)
Them: 400 RMB
Me: No thank you, and politely leave store.
... wait for it ...
Them: (shouting at my back) Okay - fine. 150 RMB
Me: (I walk back into store)
Them: Okay. 200 RMB
Me: No. (I walk away again)
Them: Okay okay okay. 150 RMB
Me: Give them the money (but wait until they have the change to give back to you in their hand)
Them: You drive too hard bargain (acting very displeased)
Me: Thank you for the shoes.
Them: (happy again) Thank you! Come again!
Me: Huh?
Its a very strange process, but it was almost the exact same script every time. I think they pay about 40 - 60 RMB ($6-$8) for each pair of shoes. So anything upwards of 100 RMB is profit to them. Again, not totally sure this is the case for all things, but hold your ground and it usually works out. NEVER NEVER NEVER pay anything even close to the actual US price, even though they'll insist the things aren't fakes.
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