A Good Deal at the Silk Market

So I gave you a teaser two weeks ago and now I'm finally getting to typing the story.  (I mentioned my over-commitment in the last post....well, nothing has changed.)

Beijing winters are COLD.  I'm a Southern girl whose winter experience is living in Chicago for 3 winters 16 years ago and an annual ski trip.  This girl's gotta shop!!

So Patrick and I went to the infamous Silk Market where tourists are bussed in by the hundreds.  We usually go to Yashow because it is in our neighborhood but the Silk Market is bigger (but more aggressive.)  For those who have never been to a market in China, it is really hard to imagine every stall yelling at you to buy something from them.  You learn to ignore the constant barrage or you do what my parents did and promise everyone you'd come back.  (Trust me, they remember you on the way back.)

 P and I wanted to see what the market had in down coats because I was thinking of having one made and didn't know what quality was available ready-made.  One of the first stalls we went to had a coat I liked so I tried it on.  It seemed to be good quality so we asked the price (as we didn't have a point of reference).  The lady (let's call her Ming) tells me she normally would charge 2800 yuan but since I seem so nice (yeah, yeah, right) she'll take 20% off to 2240 yuan ($337).  I tell P the starting price and he counters with 1000 yuan.  He obviously wasn't thinking b/c she immediately accepted.  Oops!  Too high for the counteroffer so a little back-pedaling had us leaving her stall saying we need to look around.

Ming proceeds to follow us for about 75 feet through the market, down different rows, shouting how we said 1000 so where are we going.  We honestly told her that we had just started looking so we didn't know the prices yet and hadn't seen enough coats to decide on which one to buy.  Ming then yells several times while pointing her finger at Patrick "NO, YOU LISTEN TO ME!!".  Ok, then...this does not happen at Target.

She then asks what we are willing to pay so to get rid of her, Patrick throws out 500 yuan.  Eventually she accepts.  We still want to look around for all the reasons mentioned above.  This was just not acceptable to Ming.  She storms off in a huff.

P and I wander the market (buy some jewelry, buy me a mahjong set) and eventually make our way back to Ming.  (Trust me...if I didn't like the coat we would have been long gone.) She has her arms crossed and refuses to look at us and is mumbling Chinese which I can only imagine was not positive.  When I ask to try on the coat again, she refuses.  She then demands a price before she'll take it off the coat hanger.  I am exasperated by this point and just ask her whether she wants to make a sale or not.  As I'm trying the coat on, I'm telling her she needs to relax.  This is the way Laowais shop...we like to browse, price things out, think about, etc.  P and I decide we want it but we'll only pay 400 yuan ($60), mainly b/c she was a pain in the @$$.  She puts up a fight for a few seconds and then snatches the bills out of Patrick's hand while yelling "YOU ARE A VERY BAD MAN!!!".  Alrighty then!

Now there are a lot of counterfeit products in China (NEWS FLASH) so you would assume that the coat I purchased is a fake.  Well I think it is a real because it is exactly like one I found online with all the same labels, tags, belt buckle, etc.  China usually just makes a bunch of coats and plops different designer labels on the inside.  You might see a coat with a Max Mara label on it but you would never be able to find that coat on any Max Mara website since it is not a Max Mara design.  Well, this Montcler coat is last seasons' design and it is currently selling on DownJacketSale.com for $306.99, originally $1134.99.  YAY!!  I love a deal!  Makes me love the coat even more...especially when there is a story to go with it.