It is a special economic zone and therefore attracts a lot of industry, and many north american business people will come here to meet their chinese business partners.
But it is most known in the Hong Kong area to non business people for its shopping and low prices. So people like us, will board a train and cross the border (getting a Chinese visa) to go shopping.
We arrived and with the help of a Vancouverite who was also on his way here, navigated the visa process quite easily. From there we walked the 5 minutes to our hotel, the Shangri La. Our room (much smaller than the one we had in Hong Kong....guess they did not know about our anniversary), was on the 21st floor of a 31 story hotel. The buildings all around our hotel are huge...guess you need height to accommodate the amazing population here.
After we got settled, we headed over to the famous LoWu shopping building. It is right across from our hotel and right at the border. It is 5 storeys tall and some floors are dedicated to specific items.
We were looking for prescription glasses and some gift items. Before coming here you are advised not to buy at the first place and to remember to bargain fiercely!
We stopped at the first eye ware place we saw and after trying on a number of pairs and trying out different styles, we asked for pricing on five pairs; two for me, two for Fran and a pair of prescription sunglasses for Fran. Fran also wanted multifocals on one pair, but not wanting to confuse the issue, I decided that we first try to establish and isolate the base price for regular prescription glasses and then begin to speak about the multifocals. We settled on a price of about $35 a pair. She said these could all be ready in about an hour!!
When we asked her about multi focals, she said that they would take a week and when we said that we needed someone to check the prescription, she said that would have to be in another location somewhere else in the building. Therefore based on that and also on the warning not to buy at the first place, we decided to continue shopping for eyeglasses. Btw, the sales girl's opening price was about $100 a pair...and we had bargained her down to about $35, so we now knew the range that we would have to reach at another store.
As far as multifocals, we knew from discussion in a few eye ware stores in Hong Kong that $200 would be a good price and so that was what we were aiming for in our future negotiations.
First a word about LoWu shopping complex. each store or booth is about ten feet by eight feet, and packed with merchandise. If they do not have your size, color or item, there is no stockroom behind the store but they will get the item for you. They simply scurry off to a brother, friend or competitor somewhere else in the building and get it for you. Back in two minutes with the item and you can begin to negotiate.
Btw, because of the negotiation process, you cannot shop quickly here. It is all about the give and take and it goes something like this. You walk toward a store and before you can get into the store, the person outside the store says something like "shop my store" or "you want good copy watch, purse, iPad whatever..." And tries to get you to make eye contact with an item. Once they know what you are looking at, they invite you in and the game begins.
You pick an item you like....say a ladies purse (there are hundreds of ladies purse shops in the building). You say how much? They say 580. You must remember that they are not speaking in dollars or even in Hong Kong dollars but rather in Chinese RMBs which are now 20% more than Hong Kong dollars (we made the mistake the first store of thinking in Hong Kong currency and therefore we assumed the prices were cheaper than they actually were). So 580 RMBs is about 92 Canadian dollars which you know is way above what the going market should be. So you counter with 150 RMBs. They laugh at you, and say no way. If you are way too low, they will walk away, but generally, that is not the case.
They will usually say you are way too low and counter with 550 at which point you walk away. At this point they thrust a calculator at you and ask you to key in your "final" best offer. You should then go to 160 or 170. If there is even a chance to conclude the deal at this point, they will drop significantly to about 400. You now know that there is a deal in play and you should end at about 200 or 220. This will likely require a walking away process where they run after you, grab your forearm and literally pull you back to their store. They know that your price was good and they also know that someone next door will make the deal if they miss it. That's the game but it takes time and energy.
Back to shopping, we bought some gifts for the grandkids, some eyeglasses, some pashminas, a purse, a suitcase to lug it all back to Hong Kong. We also left one of Fran's existing pairs of glasses and had the fellow change the prescription to the new reading and replace the lens. He gave us 4 of the 5 pairs that we had ordered two hours earlier and they all looked great. The 5th pair, the multi vocals will be mailed to us via China Post....we are hopeful! We returned to the hotel tired but ready for more of the game in the morning.
In the morning, we slept in till about 8:00 am. Alas no Chabad here.
At 10 we were back in Lo Wu to pick up the glasses that the fellow had fixed and on the way Fran bought a pair of prescription reading glasses from a different store than the night earlier. The fellow spent about 20 minutes with very modern machinery testing and retesting Fran's vision to make sure that he got it right. By the time he finished, she had Bulgari frames (real 100% Bvlgari copy) and lenses for $39 ready in 30 minutes. Absolutely amazing. And she is very pleased with them.
While waiting we bought some more "schmonses" and a few polo shirts for me. I have been named by some of the locals as "very good bargainer" which likely means that I paid through the nose and they are laughing their way to the bank.
But it was a "chavaya" (an experience) as they say in Israel and we had a great time.
We returned to the hotel, ate lunch (soup, smoked salmon fillet from a can that we bought in Alaska, an orange, coffee and chocolates), packed up and are now ready to check out of the hotel and head back to Hong Kong. It was a very busy and hectic 24 hours and we really enjoyed the energy expended in playing the game of shopping thru negotiations....no fixed prices.
I am attaching a couple of pics of Shenzhen
We are on our way back....more tomorrow
All the best
Fran and David
No comments:
Post a Comment