Shanghai weekend - Shopping for bargains

This was my planned weekend to see what bargains I could find in the knockoff markets around Shanghai. Of course, I didn't "need" anything but you never know what you find. Before I confuse you with the foreign exchange here, one U.S. dollar equals approx. 7 RMB (local currency) so 100 RMB is around $14 U.S.

I went to one market that was absolutely empty which is a very good sign for shoppers as you know the sellers will be anxious not to have you walk out and go to the next stand. Basically, there are approx. 10 different tpyes of shops that just keep repeating in random fashion throughout the 100 stall market. While I didn't buy anything because I wasn't in the mood yet, I did investigate how low the prices might go which helped me later. I was hungry and underfunded so I got back on the subway after a little while and headed to another market that is set up the same way.

After some food and financial replenishment, I was ready to bargain (and maybe buy). I actually did need a belt so I decided to chase this first as it was the least expensive thing I was considering and something i needed. I investigated the product in a few stalls and then I decided to buy from one guy. Typical scene, he quoted me 280 rmb ($40) so I told him forget it and was ready to walk, that begins the back and forth where we settles on $5 which I thought was a little too high but it couldn't be more than a $5 overpayment right?

Now I went to look at watches. There are several levels of fake watches here and I wanted a good fake, so you go to their booth and ask to see the better watches. The guy takes you into a tiny room, slides a door closed so there's barely enough room for the two of you, detaches one of the molding type of ledges in the room, opens a door in the wall which holds maybe 10 cases full of the "good" knock off watches. For a brief moment I wondered if I was being set up with all the doors closing, secret panels opening, metal cases being pulled, etc. OK, at least he had my attention. I didn't like his first stuff so I told him to pull out the Rolex's. They actually looked pretty good. I guess my interest got his attention so he offered to sell me two of them for 5,800 RMB (around $800). Interesting, when I asked his price for one, he gave me a lower each price of 2,800 RMB. I told him I only had 1,000 RMB on me and after some complaining he agreed to sell one to me for just 1,000 RMB ($140). I told him I was going to think about it and then appealing to his greed, see if I could get more $ out of my bank ATM across the street.

I left his stall with no intention of spending that and proceeded to look for Tommy Bahama shirts which my brother in law, Ken, loves so much, but I'm too cheap to buy for $100. Hey, these make you look like Jimmy Buffet hanging out in the Florida Keys. This item I cut through the BS right to the good prices. The guy offered them for 280 RMB and I told him that I already had a price of 100 RMB, which was true because that is what I found in the first market earlier in the day. Begrudgingly they agreed and conceded that 100 RMB was their bottom price. (I guess they thought I would stop there.) Then they proceeded to show me 25 styles so I chose one. They thought I was going to buy like 5 and spend a whole $70 U.S. so they weren't happy but took my 100 RMB. So of course, I asked about a better price for more. Well, they were either at the bottom or faking it pretty well (in a fake market, who knows who is really faking it?) So the next one was only $80 and I left feeling pretty good about this purchase and will wear one tonight and see if I can avoid getting Peking Duck on it.

So who is waiting for me after searching the 4 floors of the mall? The watch selling guy. He offers to sell me the watch I liked for 300 RMB before I even said anything. I told him I wouldn't go to his booth unless he accepted 200 RMB, which he did so my Rolex bling cost a whole $28.



I also bought a Kobe Bryant basketball outfit as a gift for the guy I am mentoring here who is a huge Kobe fan, like my son, Michael, who incorrectly believes that Kobe is better than Jordan but that's a story for a different day.

I then went to an electronics mall across town to see what they had. While I was not terribly impress because I thought it would be less polished and more like a garage sale type of scene, I did search for one item. One of my co-workers from Canada asked if I could buy her a converter for her. I proceed to find one and pay slightly less than I did for mine a few weeks ago. The sad part is an hour later I found one in a regular department store for 10% less than the bargained price.

While there was nothing exciting, I did uncover a real find on this trip. It's call Beard Papa. Ever hear of it? Their sign says, "World's Best cream Puffs". It's a Japanese company that has a some new process for making cream puffs. They take the freshly made cream puff shell and inject the cream you choose into it. The cream puffs cost around $1.20 here. There are 250 locations in Japan and another 50 around the world. This is the Wikipedia description of the product... "Their trademark product is a choux pastry shell filled with whipped cream custard, available in vanilla, chocolate, and specialty flavors such as green tea, strawberry, pumpkin, Earl Grey tea, éclair, and coffee." Let's just say, they are worth a try. There are 22 U.S. mainland locations. There are locations in WA, NY, NJ and CA so a lot of people reading this either have one nearby or sometimes travel to where they are. Of course, there is one location in El Salvador (??) you could visit. I guess that's a franchisee. A nice unexpected find before I took a very long round about trip home on three different subways.