#dongtailu

[bananaricks]

26/03/2015 the antique street market at dongtailu, shanghai

[adventuresofhelen]

Dong Tai Lu 東台路

For my internship, I went to Dongtai Road to look for antique dolls. Dongtai Road has many many stalls full of toys and other antique-y items. It's the perfect place to get souvenirs, although several of the stalls have the same merchandise!

As I browsed the stands for antique dolls, I encountered a woman at a particular stall that was actually quite mean and rude. I mean, I understand that China is not a place you go to for customer service, but the woman was just extremely antagonist and off-putting. I had asked about the prices of her merchandise and she yelled at me, saying that I was no intention of buying it and I should stop wasting people's time. Keep in mind, it was a Thursday afternoon and Carmen and I were one of the very very few people browsing these stalls. It was embarrassing to be yelled at in the middle of the street, and to be yelled at for doing nothing wrong really made me feel even worse. Part of my assignment was to know the price of the items I found at Dong Tai Lu, in case we wanted to buy the items, so I had asked the prices of multiple items at multiple stalls. I wasn't authorized to buy anything and even if I was, I would not approach the first stall that I saw and buy the items there. It is a much smarter decision as a consumer to find the lowest price possible, rather than just paying whatever price the owners wanted. Based on the way this woman treated potential customers, I would definitely not buy anything from her stall.