Rules for Bargaining

I’ve always been a somewhat passive person. But if you go to the Hong Qiao Shichang, (Pearl market,) being a passive person will get you ripped off. Sophie, Chris and I hired a mo-ped rickshaw from Wangfujing to the Pearl Market. The only problem was that this was a two seater. So Sophie sat on Chris’ lap, I had all the bags on mine and we were off. Our ride was having trouble moving and was tilting towards the side with Sophie and Chris. At stop lights it stalled and taxis almost rear ended us. They would honk at us, but we would wave at the driver and passengers and they’d just laugh. I looked out the window on my side and I saw people looking out their car windows at the three waiguoren cramped in that small cage of metal on the back of that old Chinese man’s mo-ped. I was enjoying the ride until our driver turned left from the far right lane across eight lanes of busy traffic. That’s something I don’t even think my dad would do. I had submitted myself to death and thought I had a good life. I closed my eyes, but there was no crash, no screams, no explosion of blood, no implosion of cheap metal. We had safely navigated the way across the intersection and had wound up at the market. We paid and walked towards one of the entrances. It was a shoebox of a building, and I wasn’t expecting much of it from the plain exterior. Then I walked in. It was more like a flea market than a pearl market. There were stands everywhere and it reminded me of a flea market in Florida, except there were multiple floors. Chris and I walked by the electronics section, selling iPhones for 600 kuai, Nintendo DS’ for 1500 kuai and the like, and went to the second floor for the clothes. I was on a mission for some Christmas gifts. The first rule of bargaining I learned was this.
1) The less the person knows about you the better.
I said I was shopping for Christmas gifts and she tried selling me a Santa tie. It was yellow and thin and just something I wouldn’t see anyone wearing. I told her I was Jewish and then she became confused. Why was I buying Christmas gifts? No matter, I didn’t want ties, I wanted that Beijing shirt. It started off at 100 kuai. I said “That’s simply too expensive, my friend bought his for 20.”
The clerk was offended. “20 kuai?! I’ll go poor that way!” So I started walking away. “50 kuai!”
I stopped. She was starting to break. “50? You’re pulling my leg? 20.”
“30.”
“20.”
“35.” I was baffled by the sudden increase and started walking away. Where did she learn to bargain? “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the store that sells it for 20. Why should I pay more?”
“Fine… fine,” I handed her the 20 kuai, and she gave me the shirt. Rule number 2 of bargaining,
2) You are the Customer, you have the power.
I thanked her and walked over to Chris who was trying on sweaters. The sweaters were decent, but they were all too small. Chris tried to tell the clerk that he wasn’t interested in the sweaters anymore but the woman was persistent. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back, refusing to let this catch get away. This leads to rule number 3 of bargaining.
3) If it gets too intense, walk away.
The lady kept pushing the sweater on him, but we just left and tried blending into the crowds of the market. We couldn’t really blend in, being a full head taller than almost everyone there, but it showed her. We stopped at a new stand and the clerk’s starting price was 20 for the shirt I had just bought. So I bought a Mao T-shirt for 20 and was on my way. One lady stopped us and tried to sell us a jacket. “I have quality brand name jackets. Do you want Peak or Canadian Goose. I also have North Face.” Sophie was cold so Chris gave her his jacket and he was going to get himself a new one. The clerk pulled out a Peak jacket and she showed it to us. “You like? It’s real.”
Chris asked, “How much?” The girl typed 380 onto her calculator and I let out a quick Aiyooo.
“Aiyo?! Why do you say that?”
“It’s too expensive. I’m only willing to pay 100,” Chris said.
“100?! I could buy five shirts for that? Do you really think that this jacket is worth five shirts? No.” She motioned to the wall of jackets behind her, thrown on the wall in a miraculously organized manner. “These jackets are all worth more than that!”
“100.”
“350.”
“120.”
Chris and the clerk went on like this for ten minutes, until they came to the price of 200 kuai for the jacket. The clerk looked pleased, as she got the two 100 kuai bills and Chris and I walked off down another aisle. A lady ran out to us and said, “Look here, only 100 kuai!” She pointed to the exact jacket that Chris had paid double for. We turned around and went back to the lady Chris had bargained with. “You’re a liar! We just went to a stand that was selling the exact jacket for 100 kuai.”
“NO!” the small woman yelled, “She’s the liar! That jacket is a fake!”
“You come with us and we’ll show you that jacket.” The woman glanced down and paused. We waited for what she was going to do next, then she bolted into a crowd and we lost her. We stood dumbfounded by what had happened and couldn’t help but laugh a little. While we were standing there Lauren and Claire bumped into us and we hung out for a little, but they were also shopping for gifts, so we went our separate ways. Rule 4 of bargaining.
4) You can find cheaper.
Chris and I had found what we wanted, so we were wandering the aisles having fun. One woman pulled us inside her stall and tried to sell us woman’s clothing. “You can give them to your girlfriend,” the woman tried to rationalize.
“I don’t have one,” Chris lied.
“Well then, give it to your mother,” the woman said, sensing this would make the sale.
“My mother died,” and Chris went silent.
“You liar,” the lady said and wandered to me who was waiting in the aisle way, “Did your friend’s mother really die?”
“Wha…” I saw Chris nodding behind the woman, “Yes, she just died last week.”
“Liar, buy her some clothes.”
I gasped and walked over to Chris, “Don’t cry, she’s just trying to make a living.” Chris began sniffling and I turned to the woman and hissed, “How could you? Why would we joke about something like that?”
The lady looked absolutely mortified. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” but we were already walking down the aisle. She looked at us and the other clerks were laughing at her. Right before turning the corner, still patting Chris’ back saying “don’t cry,” I looked back at her, gave her the evil eye and shook my head. Her young face was shaken. And then she fell out of view and Chris and I started laughing. We couldn’t control it. This comes to the most important rule of bargaining.
5) Have fun doing it, it’ll lead to some great stories.
We ran into Lauren and Claire again and started talking next to a stand, when a woman came up to us and wanted us to buy something. She said in English, “Get your friends some underwear.” Following rule number one, we cocked our heads to the side and pretended we didn’t speak English. I’m sorry we’re from Spain. Chris and I then convinced her that we were students at Qinghua University and hilarity ensued. Sophie found us again, Lauren and Claire left and we wandered around the market for a little while longer, going up to the fourth floor of the market. We didn’t want to spend any more money, so we headed out. I felt that I had changed a bit after my time at the Pearl market. I walked out of there and looked back at the shoebox of a building and we left on our way to dinner.