Interesting bargaining

Agencies Your desire to equip yourself with famous brands could take you to places like Beijing's Silk Alley. [newsphoto.com.cn] The polo shirts that came from a street vendor near Xiu Shui Jie (Silk Alley) in Beijing at five for 100 yuan were perfect copies of the Ralph Lauren ones. Perhaps they even were the real thing. The items were made from ultra-smooth cotton and even had a distinctive label describing the product. Silk Alley doesn't just offer silk products. There are bags and shoes, Timberland sandals, North Face jackets, Nike, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger products. Most are certainly copies. But when they're well made and cost one-twentieth of the regular price, who's complaining? Meanwhile, the Mont Blanc pens on the first floor of Hongqiao market in the south of Beijing are obvious fakes. Only those in the know would be able to tell. From the distinctive white star to the oversized nib and heavy feel, they look like the Meisterstuck Le Grand Fountain Pen that retails for about US$350 in the US. The Chinese version comes at around 15-20 yuan. For a bulk order, the price could be as low as 10 yuan. Hongqiao is located near the Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan), and is a miniature Chinese bazaar. The basement has foodstuff, and, in true Chinese fashion, it includes a variety of live things as well. On the ground floor, electronics goods, mobiles, cameras and pens overflow from the privately owned stalls. There are leather handbags on the second floor, and clothing, suitcases, shoes, jewellery, porcelain, jade Buddhas, teapots and pearls on the third. Hongqiao is a fountain of desirable items, but the real pleasure comes from bargaining. Begin at 10-15 per cent of the seller's original price and go up to 30 per cent. An interpreter isn't really needed. The hand-held calculator is the medium. It goes like this: Shopkeeper punches in 240 yuan for that lovely linen shirt. Shopper says 20 yuan. Shopkeeper howls with laughter, punches in 200. Shopper comes back with 25, then begins to walk away. Shopkeeper drops to 50. Shopper generously closes it at 30. Shopkeeper's last offer is 35. The deal gets done. The deal is good natured. There is little or no rudeness of the type that can be encountered elsewhere, or price-fixing among bargain stores in New Delhi, India. The active bargaining and sales are managed by teenaged boys and girls, supervised by mostly silent shopkeepers. Shanghai's equivalent of Silk Alley and Hongqiao are the Yu Yuan Gardens and Xiangyang South Road, a market that originated on Huating Road. More distinctive are the upmarket Nanjing and Huaihai roads. The former prides itself on being the premier shopping street in all of China, with a vast pedestrian section. The most striking thing is how trendy the young are - designer T-shirts, shorts, and dark glasses are a must for the young. Huaihai Road is the home of the branded products - Esprit, Nick, Jeans West, Dison. These shops are not for the bargain-hunter. Neither are the mega-malls that are springing up across China such as the China World Shopping Mall (Guo Mao) and Xin Dong An Plaza in Beijing or the Carrefour and Metro Hypermarket in Shanghai which are organized in the American way, complete with food courts, movie theatres and multi-level parking. These two vastly different shopping experiences are meeting a variety of demands. That's business.

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