Shanghai Tai Tai

This past weekend we had our first visitors (!) and they were thrust into my world of being a ‘Shanghai Tai Tai.’ There are a few requirements to have this honor bestowed upon you. First, you must have an extreme amount of leisure time (i.e., no kids). Second, you must have the money to spend and spend you will. Third, should you have any complaints about how hard your day was haggling over wanted items or the driver taking you to the wrong place, your husband will surely respond “Oh . . . you live such a hard life!” (I hear this almost every day, if not from Jeff, then from someone else’s husband speaking to their wives) There are many other requirements but those are the most important. (Mom, please note the sarcasm)

Bill and Olga get here with their shopping lists ready to go and we take off to the markets. Olga is on the hunt for some very specific bags so we march into the recommended store and tell her what we want. Now just because you don’t see it does not mean it does not exist. Soon a fake door is being unlocked and you are escorted into another room. Still no luck? You can bet there is another secret room behind that one or they will run off to have someone grab your item from another store. Keep in mind the doors are always shut behind you and you are basically locked in this small room with one of the employees. You would think this might give them the upper hand but soon the negotiating starts if you have found your prized item. Now since we are Westerners, it can be assumed we might be tourists and are going be taken for all our cash for our wanted items. We decided to employ another strategy that seemed to work consistently at every store. I inform them that I am a Shanghai tai tai referred by another tai tai and I currently live here. This basically starts the negotiating with “I am not a tourist and I have been referred by a friend so you better not start at a ridiculous price because I know what I should pay.” Calling yourself (or at least me) a Shanghai tai tai always gets a laugh from the employees because they think I am a poor college student that cannot be more than 20. Next they whip out their calculator. You might think this is because they don’t speak English well, but the real reason is they don’t want other shoppers to know what price you have settled on. So they will start off showing you a number that is AT LEAST 10 times the cost. Next it is time to laugh and say “tai gui le!” . . . too expensive. Now they assume you know some Chinese and the calculator is now in your possession. It is your turn to low ball them and then the process goes back and forth. It is important to decide what you want to spend so you don’t end up overpaying for something you can get somewhere else for cheaper. One way to know you are winning the negotiation is that they start asking for ‘just a little more money’ but either way they will probably come down to your price. The other is to just walk away at which point they will start shouting lower and lower prices until they come to agree on your desired price. If they do not yell after you, you have either pissed them off or are way below the cost of the item. Either way we are pretty sure they do not make much on a lot of sales but bank on a few naive tourists coming their way. This process can get a bit annoying on both ends but it can also be a lot of fun. Some of loot . . . here is the rundown:

‘designer’ leather bags - $20-$40
Bill’s 5 pairs of ‘designer’ jeans - $55
3 hybrid with a legit head - $25
Golf range bag - $13 ‘UGG’ slippers - $7

We leave happy with our purchases and our wallets empty, ready to start the process over at another market the next day. (The above picture is my 'escalator fail' picture but now I am convinced that it probably does lead to some secret room full of good stuff)