My apologies - but none of my pictures from inside the market turned out. I'm currently sourcing pictures from co-workers and will add them once I get them. In the mean time - imagine!
How does it work? You tell the worker what you want (for instance, I ordered a suit from one vendor, two dress shirts from another, and a pair of dress pants and a winter coat from a final one). You can either point to one of their models, bring your own picture of the style, or look in many of the books that they have available. They have tons of rolls of fabric, so you select the fabric right off the bolts. They then measure you - all before talking price. Next comes the negotiation.
This is where it gets fun or tricky depending upon your view. They'll always start the price ridiculously high - I'll use my pair of pants as an example. She said 700RMB, about~$105 (well she didn't really say - all the price negotation is done on a calculator as it's easier for everyone to understand). I laughed and said 'tài guì le' or it's too expensive in Mandarin. At this point she dropped the price to 600RMB, saying it's "Special Friend Price". I kept laughing and said 'jiā yóu' - or come on in Mandarin. At this point, she asked me (in Mandarin), if I speak Mandarin, so I replied (in Mandarin of course), that I speak a little and that her prices are for Americans - I want the Chinese price. Suddenly the Special Friend Price is 300RMB. That is when I offered 100RMB. I knew from doing some research on the expat forums that anything under 175RMB is a good price for dress pants from this particular stall. After a few more rounds of back and forth, we're at 200RMB. This is when I told her it's too expensive and not worth my time, I'll go to someone else. As I'm walking out the door she grabs my arm and pulls me back in, showing her final price of 150RMB (~$22). Mission accomplished. She says the pants will be ready in four days - I knew I don't need them any sooner, so I said thanks and goodbye.
A week later:
Class got really busy, so I didn't get a chance to head back any sooner. Went to the stall and said hello. She got the pants out and tried them on (right out in the open - hope you've got clean underwear on!). For women trying on clothing they'll hold up some fabric as a makeshift changing room. The pants fit great, they were just about 3/4" too long, so I pointed that out and they altered them in about 20 minutes. Good to go. Every other item fit perfectly the first time. For some reason they couldn't find the vest for my suit, so they're making another one which will be ready tomorrow (although I won't go back until next week).
So what did I all get?
- Two dress shirts
- One three piece suit
- One pair of dress pants
- One cashmere winter coat
for a grand total of about $200. I win!
How do they look? Check it out for yourself!
Suit and one of the shirts:
One of the shirts and the other pair of pants:
For some reason the shirt looks terrible in this picture - it actually fits great - possibly my new favorite shirt!
And the fabulous cashmere coat:
As an added bonus - I can now email the stalls that have my size and request fabric swatches. They'll mail them over to me in the states and I can let them know which ones I want and they'll make another shirt/suit/pair of pants and mail them to me. I just need to avoid gaining weight!
0 comments:
Post a Comment