Sarah and I planned a shopping adventure at Namdaemun Market. Namdaemun is one of the largest outdoor markets in Seoul. Unlike some markets that are geared more towards Koreans or foreigners, this one is kind of a toss up. One can buy souvenirs there, but just about everything else is also sold in the market: clothes, shoes, silverware and tableware, military stuff, traditional Korean fast foods and desserts, toys, stationery . . . I could go on forever. So while Sarah was on the hunt for souvenirs to send home for Christmas, I was on a search for winter boots.
Our first real snow here was on December 3. It has been bitterly cold ever since. Thankfully the winds haven't come yet, though. On average, the temperature has been about 14 degrees Fahrenheit--that's below 0 degrees in Celsius. It snowed three days that week, and the snow isn't melting. I think it's here to stay for a while. . .
After we had wandered around the market for a while, we came upon a larger-than-normal shoe store. You see, you can really buy shoes anywhere in Seoul. Shops are all over the place--including every subway station. But it's hard to tell how good the quality is, especially when the price is under $10. So this shop was a walk-in one. We took a peek, and decided to check it out. Thankfully, one of the workers spoke a decent amount of English to understand that I was looking for snow boots. Immediately he took me to the back of the store and showed me a large display of them. I had no clue what to choose! There were far too many options. I stuck my hands down a few of them to check out their warmth and then requested to try on three different pairs. At last, I decided which I liked best, but it just was too small.
Shoe sizes here are measured in centimeters, so my typical shoe size in the States (7.5-8) is about a 245-250 here. I requested a 245 first. Tooo small! Then a 250. That didn't work either. Granted, I was wearing two pairs of socks, one of which was wool. Finally I asked for a 255. The man stood aghast. Surely my feet couldn't be that big! His coworkers were just as surprised. I just laughed. . .
Well, he went and got them to try on me (store owners actually put the shoes on for you), and sure enough, they fit.
In between all of this, I continued to ask him in Korean, "How much is it?" and he continually refused to tell me. Eventually, when he realized I was close to making the purchase, though, he bragged that the boots were made with cow leather and gave me a price for two different ones. One was over 200,000 won, and the ones I was wearing were 180,000 won. I was shocked--especially after seeing so many pairs of shoes for 10,000 won (granted, the quality wasn't that great). After seeing that price on his calculator, I was about ready to walk out. I've never spent that much money on shoes, and I wasn't about to start then. I told him in Korean, "I don't have that much." However, he really wanted to make the sale, so he told me he'd give me a discount, and when I refused that amount, he asked me to quote him a price. So I typed 50,000 won in his calculator. "Oh my-----" he repeated over and over, astounded that I would stoop so low. He shook his head and typed in another number--maybe 165,000 won. I continued to stay, "No. I don't have that much," in Korean. We had this whole conversation with smiles on our faces, and it was actually rather fun. This is the first bargaining experience I've had where I haven't left the shop owner upset. In any case, this continued for a while. I refused to budge much past my 50,000 won mark. I pushed it up to 53,000, and he still couldn't believe it when he was dropping by the tens of thousands. Eventually he got frustrated. He took my hand, and Sarah laughed as she watched what happened next. He took my index finger and blew on it--like gamblers blow on dice, and then used my finger to type in 68,000 won into the calculator. Now I knew I was getting somewhere. I took my hand back and typed in 55,000 won. He repeated the previous action, but once he realized I wasn't going to exceed 55,000 won, he conceded. He let me try on the shoes one more time, and while I was walking back to do that, I noticed another pair that looked nice. He sighed, afraid that I was going to make him go through this all over again, but I didn't. He then pulled out some inserts. "Servic-uh," he said, which means "free service." He put them in the boots, but when I tried to walk, they were too tight again. Still, I asked to keep them for the future when I don't have super thick socks on. So he brought out his calculator again and typed in 57,000 won. "No, no!" I argued. He asked me to type in the amount again, and I returned to 55,000 won. OK. He finally gave up and charged me that amount. (That is the equivalent of about $50.)
I walked away a happy girl. So did Sarah. She bought a cheaper pair of boots, but she decided not to bargain. She laughed and told me that they could take the extra money as a donation for what I didn't pay.
And here is a picture of the boots. I figure he wouldn't have sold them to me at that price if he weren't still making a significant profit off me. And now . . . I'm set for winter!
Haha, funny story! Bargaining is quite a sport. Good job with sticking to your price. I'm sure he still made money.
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