Shopping is an art form here in China

My mom has a motto that I religiously followed back in the states, "Buy it first and find a place for it next".  Here in China, I really can't follow that motto.  My new motto is, "buy it if you like it and fits my 800 foot apartment". I am proud to say that I have followed that pretty well with the help of Randy ('do you REALLY need that?') .  Without him, I could do some serious damage.  There are malls at every corner like there are Starbucks at every corner in Seattle. The difference is, each mall has a uniqueness of its own. There are clothing malls, food malls, western malls, Chinese malls, Korean malls and mom and pop malls.  These malls are set with an anchor store like H&M with vendors on each floor with their own clothes line shoes or knock off accessories. It is not for the faint of heart and my Dad would probably suffer SERIOUSLY doing that kind of walking for hours. Besides the malls, there are also convenient stories and markets and factories.  So it is with confidence that I say, China is a place to shop...for anything at a very good price. 

Bartering is encouraged at some places and looked upon as being rude if you don't play the bartering game.  My issue is the price is already low in US standards.  For instance, I got a beautiful vase for 150 RMB.  That is about $21.00.  Back in the states, I would pay double if not more.  If I do barter, I usually go about 10 RMB below the asking price.  They are most happy to play the game with me.  Its a win-win situation. 

The school offers transportation for our shopping needs. Here is our schedule for shopping through the week,
Sunday - Kaifaqu
Tuesday - Kaifaqu (usually our date night - dinner and any shopping we need to do)
Thursday - Kaifaqu (usually we don't go in on Thursdays)
Friday -  Jinshitan (local grocery store about 10 minute drive from the school)
Saturday - Jinshitan outdoor market, Kaifaqu and Dalian (Metro, Sams club and IKEA)

We usually go in on Tuesdays, Saturday and Sunday depending if we planned ahead of time.  You can literally waste a whole weekend of shopping! We have been good at buying only what we need and not what we want (NUTELLA).  Why?  Well besides the obvious for our health but because we have to carry everything with us. We have a pull cart and a backpack that we take with us everywhere because we never know what we might find that we "need". We take the transportation school provides for us plus the light rail to and from the school. We now have a system and feel confident when we do our shopping.

When we go shopping we have our regulars just like we do back at home (Safeway, Lowes, Target) but here we call them, the green door market woman, mushroom gal, apple guy and so on.  Sarah Applegate and I call one vendor our 'whole foods market' gal because she has a display of her fruits and vegetables that puts all the other vendors to shame.

Shopping is an art form here in China.  I just read an article about the comparison between 11.11 (Chinese black friday-they call it 'singles' day) and Black Friday.  Knowing that Chinese population is quite high compared to the United States, the graph shows the difference between the two countries

Well, that about all when it comes to shopping. Until next time.
Liz and Randy