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A Rolex in Chinatown
Author: Bill Cusick
August 17, 2004
It’s sweaty and overcrowded - a melting pot of aggressive pedestrians from everywhere - all on a mission, all milling through tiny spaces. People are yelling to each other, and when a cop strolls by vendors chatter to each other on their Nextel two-ways, as bags of “special” merchandise get quickly tucked away.
I really hate crowds. And I hate shopping. And yet here I was, over the weekend in New York’s Chinatown with my wife, Marti (a professional bargain hunter and adventurer). She was in search of all things Prada and Louis Vuitton. I had a hankering for a real fake Rolex. And a customer experience was born.
To find our prey, we needed to look beyond the items displayed on the walls and in the glass cases. After wandering about and getting my bearings, I strolled up to an Asian gentleman who was finishing a spirited negotiation with a prospect about a very splashy, bejeweled watch: “for you I’ll cut it to $50…” but the sucker was gone. Enter me. “Do you have Rolex?” I asked innocently. The man almost disappeared, reaching deep into a nearby cabinet, and pulled out three different models. They started at $120, he said, and began extolling the virtues of each. I started to walk away, and he grabbed my sleeve. We talked more, and the negotiations ended with two of the watches for $30 each. (On the advice of legal counsel - my own - I’ll leave it to your imagination on whether I consummated the purchase.)
This was not a textbook customer experience: the merchandise was hard to locate (it was, chances are, also a knock-off, but who’s to say?), no warranty, and there’s no way to know what kind of deal you’re really getting. But, on the other hand, there was real sport to it, the seller was flexible, and it was different. Sometimes different is bad, and sometimes different is why people buy, or stay.
Oh, and Marti totally scored on the designer handbags.
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How many handbags did Marti buy? Did she bargin the way you did? Next time get a Rolex for me — The guy that rides his bike by your house more than anyone else.
Later Hosen
Comment by Eric Sorensen — September 13, 2004 @ 4:27 pm