BEIJING — One by one they’ve staggered into our modest bureau at the main press center this week, looking like they’ve barely survived Mike Shanahan’s goal-line tackling drill.
Reporters staking out the biggest Olympic news story of the day?
Nope, first-time shoppers to the Silk Market, Beijing’s version of We Will Sell You Our Junk At Inflated Prices And You’ll Enjoy It.
Nuggets beat reporter Benjamin Hochman told me earlier this week he wanted a “real” Chinese shopping experience. Not some sterile American rip-off mall, but authentic Chinese shopping, whatever that meant.
I suggested the Silk Market, and tried to prep him on the 1) wildly inflated prices (take their sticker price and divide by five, for starters), 2) the art of negotiating and 3) super-aggressive merchants. Physical contact is not unusual, I added.
Hochman smiled and nodded, as if to say, “You think I’m some rookie from Arkansas Tech?”
Our man Benjamin found his way back to our office yesterday evening with his limbs intact, barely; his wallet lighter and, he proudly pointed out as he opened his shopping bag, an extra pair of gym shorts accidentally stuffed into a T-shirt he negotiated down so well they almost paid him to take it.
He adjusted fairly quickly to being shouted at, pointed at and grabbed at.
But when the female salesperson ran after him and threatened bodily harm, he knew he had mastered the Art of the Deal, Beijing-style.
Zai jian,
Scott Monserud
