Consumer retail

Saturday was the day of researching the consumer retail market in China, aka shopping. I headed out with the general plan that I needed to get a few pairs of underwear and some jeans (not great packing as I left Stanford) and maybe some souvenirs. Amazingly, Saturday was my last full free day in Shanghai to take care of this stuff.

I think in Shanghai you can shop at more price points than anywhere else in the world. I went to a few small discount places, sort of like small Dollar Stores, with similar $1 or less prices. Then I went to a big Amway, just to check it out. Still, I don’t know exactly what it was – I know Amway is really big in the smaller towns in China as they use a direct sales/distribution model. This Amway was a big building with a lot of people standing around doing nothing and a few tables with some beauty products. But it didn’t look like you could buy anything – I’m not really sure what was going on.

Then I went to 3 department stores, basically a low-end department store, a mid-end, and high-end. All pretty similar stuff and price points to their US equivalent stores.

Finally, I went to two malls, one was about an average mall with average US prices, though except for the Timberland store and the Keen store, there was nothing else really interesting, and the place was pretty empty. The second mall though was huge – like 7 stories – and was just like Phipps in Atlanta or any other really nice mall. Tons of US brand stuff, with US$200 jeans at Diesel and a Nike Golf store and a big fancy food court and everything else you would expect to find at a mall that is too expensive for me in the US. But tons of locals were wandering all around, window shopping and buying stuff.

So I wandered through all of these stores and bought absolutely zero, except an M&M blizzard from Dairy Queen. Last week though, the Georgia Tech guys had told me that there was still a market here in Shanghai that was full of pirated goods (like I think was probably everywhere until they recently started cracking down). So I got on the subway from the nice mall, and headed to the pirate market stop. 30 minutes later, without even setting foot outside, I went from one of the nicest places I had ever shopped to a massive underground market.

You could buy any type of clothing or electronics or sporting goods you can imagine - Callaway golf clubs, Prince tennis racquets, Rolex’s everywhere, iPods, video games, DVDs, Chinese souvenirs, and just about every brand of clothing. And all of it was dirt cheap. There were mostly tourists, but some locals shopping too. So this is where I shopped.

Purchases

One Framed thingee to hang on Matt and Jaime’s “Wall of Weird Random Stuff from Chris”

Chopsticks set for 6, engraved with dragons and little things to set them on

One deck of Mao Zedong playing cards

2 ties, nicer than any other ties I own (which does not say much)

2 pairs of boxers

3 pairs of socks

2 pairs of sunglasses (one Oakley and one Rayban)

One costume-worthy belt with a large John Deere belt buckle

One dress shirt

One army green CCCP t-shirt

One set of iPod speakers

One iPod power adapter (US$50 at Best Buy China, $2.50 here)

One pair Dolce & Gabbana jeans (note: Obviously I am not a D&G guy. But I only brought 1 pair of jeans and I wear them to work everyday. These same jeans were on sale in the nice mall for US$220. Now, my nicest pair of jeans cost $20 at a sketchy market in China. And even if they are fake, they probably are still my nicest pair)

Total cost: ~650RMB or about US$85. I think not a bad day of shopping.

Finally, after I bought some stuff from her stand, I started talking to one of the sellers who spoke pretty good English. I asked her where she got her product from – was it fake, were there just a few shipments that “got lost” from the factory, or how did it work? She just said “Business Secret” and smiled.

A few photos: Me and a large ice cream cone on the sidewalk (sadly, the top is cut off, not sure the guy knew why I wanted him to take my picture), the Disney store in the mid-tier mall, and a band promoting the new CK-1 cologne in the high-end mall.