Cash Registers

Just like everything else here, shopping doesn't work the way I'm used to. Besides the bartering and cash-only system at many markets with booths or stalls run by separate merchants, Beijing also offers shopping malls and department stores that seemed more like what I am used to in the US. Here the prices are fixed, as indicated by the sign or the sales lady who will tell you "final price" or "fixed price" if you try to negotiate.

The official Olympic merchandise stores all over the city fall into this category, and I was ready to start buying souvenirs for family, friends, and myself at the flagship Olympic store before the real Olympic crowds set in. Also, when visiting several of the Olympic outlets (they're everywhere, including the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven) I was noticing that certain items were already selling out and it was hard to find out if they would ever be restocked. The clerks, most of whom speak English, really want you to buy what they have on hand and won't really say anything about future shipments. Out of the Fuwas, the five mascots representing the Beijing Olympics, Jingjing the Panda is extremely popular and out of stock in a lot of items. All the Jingjing shot glasses were sold out at one of the big Olympic stores I visited. Poor little Beibei, the fish, is the last kid chosen to be on a team at recess. There are always plenty of Beibei items left in stock. I think it might be because the poor thing has a hat that looks a bit like a witch's hat.

The selection at the big flagship store was picked over as well. It was still filled with thousands of items, but certain things weren't there. I didn't see certain commemorative pins and medallions that I had admired in other outlets and waited to buy all together on one credit card bill. I still fared well and found things I adored. When I picked out my first item to purchase, the clerk didn't hand it to me from behind the counter. She filled out a small paper form (carbon copy form with three sheets) with the item number, quantity and total amount due. I turned to my classmate and asked him if I was supposed to pay somewhere else and a friendly Chinese man who spoke English explained to me that you pay for all your purchases at one register.

I kept shopping and collected two more small forms before I approached the long line at the central register. I saw the sign explaining that Visa is the official card of the Olympics and the only one accepted at the store. (Since then I've been to a large foreign language bookstore that accepts Mastercard exclusively.) The line moved forward quite slowly because there was one clerk, and she had to type all the information from the paper slip into the computer by hand, no scanning of bar codes, etc. Then there was a bunch of paper separating, stapling, and stamping that I couldn't exactly see until it was my turn at the counter. She keeps one copy of the forms in triplicate and gives you two, one for to keep and one to exchange for your merchandise, each of which she stamps by hand. The forms that you take back to the shopping counters also each have a computer receipt stapled on. I walked away with an overwhelming pile of at least 10 small papers and receipts. Then, there is still no central place to collect your purchases. I basically retraced my steps and went back to each counter to exchange a receipt for a purchase. It was more tiring than shopping usually is for me, and since then I've found that many of the middle and larger stores work this way.

One more interesting shopping note: My roommate Trisha bought a shirt at the Chinese equivalent of Nike or Adidas, Li-Ning, a store that we both fell in love with. She used her credit card, signed her name on the receipt, and did not expect the reaction she got from two sales ladies. Her signature on the receipt did not match the name on the strip on the back of the card, "SEE ID," and the sales ladies were fit to be tied. She got out her ID, showed them the signature and her photo, but we could not explain to them that SEE ID was not her name. They kept handing her a pen to resign her name. She finally wrote SEE ID next to her original signature and solved the whole problem. Also, apparently two classmates who didn't sign their names closely enough to the way they did on their travelers checks had to resign their names six to nine times each until the signatures looked close enough to the originals!