UMD LSBE Study-in-China 2009

Today was our second free day in a row in Tianjin. A few of my friends and I went wandering around and walked through three different electronic malls. Unlike in America where the retail stores are all consolidated under one name and brand China’s stores are all independent retailers competing with one another. They purchase the space within the building to sell their products. Many of the retailers sell the exact same products so the only differentiation they can offer is price, which is why bargaining is possible in many of China’s stores. The thing I have noticed though about almost all of the stores I’ve visited is that you can’t tell who is a customer and who is an employee. They typically do not wear a name tag or even a similar shirt to identify them as an employee. In the stores random people will come up and start talking to you about the products and it takes a while to register that they are sales people. The malls always seem to be extremely packed with people but it is impossible to determine how many are shoppers and how many are employees. I’m sure the workers at the mall can identify the shoppers much easier, especially when a bunch of white Americans come wandering through. Luckily in China there is no concern on finding an employee to answer a question. As soon as you look at a product they start talking to you trying to pull you into their booth. On a few occasions I have been physically pulled into a booth by a salesperson trying to have me look at something that I am not even remotely interested in. I have learned that the best tactic is to not make eye contact, look at products you are not interested in, or say hello to anyone. I will never complain about the one Target employee coming up and asking me if I need help finding anything ever again once I get back to the US.