Mon Aug 18 – Shopping in Beijing (part 3)

On Monday, I looked at my Olympic tickets for my 3:30 event which was for flatwater canoeing. Turns out that this venue was not reachable via subway. It was actually 30 kilometers east of Beijing proper – and could even been seen any on any of the maps I had in the room. I decided that was a recipe for disaster and so since I had gotten the tickets for very little, we decided to scrap that event which would give us more time to get ready and for SHOPPING. Now that we knew the process, we were prepared. We got there and started shopping. They probably didn’t like us much – because the recommended rule of thumb was to counter their initial offer at 25% and then negotiate from there. Our rule of thumb was to 1) never decide that we “had” to have anything, 2) assume there was always someone else probably selling the same thing, 3) consider a low price that we would consider was a very good bargain, 4) offer a lower than 25% price every time, and then 5) be willing to not budget on our price – and be willing to walk away to either get a better price, or search for the same merchandise else where. I think the strategy worked very well. I think we set the price on almost everything we got. But it took a lot out of you – I think we started getting a little tired in the afternoon because sometimes we would give in and raise our counteroffer by $1 or $2 dollars. But basically, it seemed like we were naming our price – and then we would get it. They had 6 floors of stuff – jewelry, silk, ties, shirts, pants, dresses, bags, luggage, watches, sunglasses. The prices were so ridiculously low and it seemed a crime to not buy something that you might need to buy in the next year, knowing that you could buy it now, or pay 5 to 10 times more in the states. But you had to work for it. And frankly, it was fun doing it that way. Much more interesting and engaging than just browsing pre-priced items…before we knew it, it was 4:00 in the afternoon and we had to call it quits. That’s the fastest time has even flown shopping.