Retail Therapy

The weather is shifting in Shanghai. It is now in the upper 40's to mid-50's (I don't know when I will be able to communicate or think in celsius) gray and rainy. We have not seen a blue sky in forever. I am told this is it for Shanghai until about April.

This, in combination with having reached the 3-month point in our relocation, has put all of us in a bit of a slump - commonly referred to as a Shang-low. You know, the excitement of a new place and the brain space occupied by figuring things out as given way to ... daily life. Each of the kids has separately expressed a desire to go back home in the past week. And several days ago, after having struggled with the complete inanity of our new health insurance provider coupled with the rigid chinese pharmaceutical restrictions, I texted Jeff "I want to go home. It is too bleep-bleep complicated here." 

And then a miracle happened here...

One of my new friends (they're all new friends) who whittles away an hour-and-a-half every week with me while our children bounce through their trampolining class invited me to join her and two of her friends on a jaunt to Puxi. The plan was to introduce me to the Pearl Market and enjoy lunch at the best Mexican restaurant in town. There are many taitais here who make a full-time job out of shopping. I am not one of them. I am more of a buyer than a shopper. And I have never, repeat never, enjoyed shopping with friends. So I have listened to the moms at drop off and pick up talking about the Fabric Market and the Pearl Market and how they have jewelry and clothes made for cheap, cheap prices and I can't figure out how I will ever muster up the energy or the style-sense to do the same. Nonetheless, I like my new friend Kim and looked forward to hanging with her minus the trampoline and the kids.

It was a long (well over an hour) and jerky drive to Hongqiao and by the time we arrived I was queasy and headachy. We entered the "Hongqiao Crafts Market" where, on the first floor is a big fake market - similar to, but smaller than the one near our home in Pudong. Riding the escalator up to the second floor we arrive in a huge open room with dozens and dozens (maybe hundreds) of small stalls with jewelry, pearls, beads, crystals, chains, etc. This does not help my queasiness.

As I stroll past a couple dozen stalls, I eventually stop to look more closely at some necklaces that caught my eye. Within 2 minutes I pull together a necklace, bracelet, and earring set that I like and ask the young woman behind the counter "yigong duoshao qian?" (altogether how much?) and she replies "80RMB" which is roughly $12. I am so shocked that I can get all this jewelry for so cheap that I forget that I could bargain her to an even lower price, so I just say yes! She takes a box out from behind the counter full of those cute little translucent pull-tie bags in a zillion colors and asks me to choose one. I ask for her card and her name. "Cassie" she tells me, "You come back, bring friends." I tell her I will. My queasiness is lifting.

Over the next hour or so I proceed to hone my jewelry purchasing skills. I learn that you don't need to buy things as is, but rather can use the displayed items as starting points, catalysts, ideas of what you want. You can see a bracelet and say "I want this, but in a different color." Then they make it, right then. You can ask them to add items, subtract items, make some matching earrings. You can take in a picture of something and ask them to "make that". Here is an example:

I saw four of these chokers and each of them had one color pearl throughout. There was a white pearl one, a green pearl one, etc. Then I saw the bracelet, which was the only piece that had multi-colored pearls, only I didn't like all the colors. I asked Cassie if she could change some of the colors. "No problem." I then asked why there were no necklaces that were multi-colored. "No problem. I make you one now." She took apart a few of her necklaces (which I learned are merely made to display the beads - everything is changeable) to get the right colored pearls and then in less than 1/2 hour, made me a completely new necklace and earrings - plus, she made an extra set just like it to display. This little gem set? 60RMB ($9) - I'm now a better customer and getting a better price.  I bought a third set from Cassie with a similar process. Then moved onto a few other stalls.

Having moved to intermediate level jewelry shopper I drifted past a stall, noticed some earrings I half-liked 'if only that second tier wasn't there', looked at the woman behind the counter and said "Can you please take this off?" She did and I bought them for 15RMB ($2). At the end of my shopping trip I had spent about $50 and acquired all this:

 
  More importantly, I had acquired a new attitude. 

Goodbye Shang-low, Hello Shanghai!!
 

Comments

[steven]

you are transforming in front of my internet eyes...