A question of distinctionsOnce inst

A question of distinctions
Once installed at the Ice Day counter, I quickly encountered the blurred
boundaries that had produced a crisis of trust in the store. One of my first
surprises at Harbin No. X was the frequency with which customers hoped,
even expected, to negotiate prices with sales clerks. ‘
Dazhe ma?
’ ‘Is there a
discount?’, customer after customer would ask.
Prices at Harbin No. X were, however,
not
negotiable, and the store
continued to sell goods only at the prices marked on official price tags. But
given the prevalence of bargaining in other retail settings – not only low-
end
geti
settings but even new, high-end department stores – shoppers were
loath to relinquish price haggling. They often refused to believe sales clerks’
insistence on printed prices. In one case, when I told a pair of customers
there was no discount, they simply asked me a second time, as if I had not
already responded to their question. One man was so astonished that there
was no price haggling at Harbin No. X that he exclaimed, ‘But now that
we have a market economy (
shichang jingji
), things have changed. What
do you mean I can’t bargain (
jiangjia
)?’
Indeed, given the workings of the market economy, the skeptical shopper
never took a price at face value, fearing he would miss out on a discount
by not pushing hard enough. When Big Sister Lin quoted a 300 yuan price
to a customer, he responded, ‘How about 280?’ ‘I’m telling you the truth’,
Lin replied plaintively. ‘I can’t bargain, not even one penny. This is the
lowest price, any lower and we don’t earn anything!’ The man did not make
the purchase. In another instance, after I refused to offer a discount, a
woman customer leaned over and asked in an undertone if it was possible
to ‘speak to the manager’ about a discount. Many customers seemed
convinced that, if they just asked in the right way, a discount would be
forthcoming.
Over time, I came to realize that the problem was one of distinguishing
among retail settings. This was revealed to me one day when, after I
declined to offer a discount, a woman customer asked me, ‘Is this counter
Harbin No. X’s?’
‘What?’ I replied, confused.
‘Are you an individually-operated (
geren
) counter, or . . .’
I understood. ‘We are factory-direct sales (
changjia zhixiao
)’, I chirped,
indicating that the counter was not a
geti
operation. ‘We can’t bargain.’
3
Such confusion meant that, in the eyes of most shoppers, Harbin No. X
was not significantly different from a
geti
merchant, and this drastically
eroded much of the symbolic capital Harbin No. X might have claimed as
a large, state-run retailer in pre-reform days and through the early years of
economic reforms. Despite the fact that store managers insisted to me that
simply by entering the store, ‘customers express their trust in Harbin No.
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Sales floor trajectories
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X’, in fact most shoppers had little confidence that Harbin No. X or its
sales clerks operated according to anything but the short-term, profit-driven
motives that now seemed to define all retail settings in the city.
It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that it was an elderly couple (the elderly
being a group rarely found in newer retail settings), stopping at the Ice Day
counter for a brief look, who continued to recognize Harbin No. X as a
traditional, fixed-price retailer. The old man made a comment to his wife
about bargaining, to which she exclaimed, ‘This is a state store (
gongjia
)!
You can’t bargain here!’ Our assistant floor manager, Manager Zhou, had
been standing at the counter, and upon hearing this she beamed at me and
then said to them, ‘That’s right, but
we
guarantee the quality of our goods.’
Strategies of the skeptical shopper
Harbin No. X’s promise of quality goods (backed by a return policy) was
not one that customers regarded with confidence, however. The store’s
customers were skeptical shoppers, and their purchasing strategies clearly
revealed this. By importing shopping strategies refined in
geti
markets into
the state-owned department store, customers also demonstrated the
blurring, in their minds, between retail settings like Harbin No. X and its
private competitors.
Two of the most common risk-reducing shopping practices were the close
inspection of merchandise and a practice called ‘
tiao
’ in Chinese, a term
that literally means ‘to choose’ and in practice refers to selecting the best
from a number of ostensibly identical items. Both close inspections and
tiao
were practices I would later see regularly exercised in a
geti
clothing bazaar
I also studied, unsurprising given that these strategies reduced the risk of
buying shoddy merchandise. In fact, I found that shoppers at Harbin No.
X were often more insistent upon these two strategies than were shoppers
in
geti
markets – a situation which partly reflects the greater expense of the
down coats I sold at Harbin No. X (about 300 yuan, roughly US$35)
relative to the jeans, shirts, and blouses sold in
geti
clothing bazaars (40 to
100 yuan, about US$5–12). (In 2000, the average monthly wage in Harbin
was 580 yuan.) By contrast, at the high-end department store I studied,
customers focused much more on ‘discounts’ than on merchandise quality.
So whereas bargaining has become common practice in most Chinese retail
settings, close inspections and
tiao
remain more class-bounded shopping
strategies and were amplified by the relative costliness of purchases I
observed at Harbin No. X.
Careful inspection of merchandise was the first line of defense against
being tricked into buying the low-quality goods that filled
geti
markets.
Shoppers at Harbin No. X would regularly examine every seam, carefully
experiment with each zipper, and closely scrutinize collars and cuffs. One

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Pertanyaan perbedaanSetelah diinstal di konter es hari, saya cepat mengalami kaburbatas-batas yang telah menghasilkan krisis kepercayaan di toko. Salah satu pertama sayakejutan di Harbin No. X adalah pada frekuensi yang pelanggan berharap,bahkan diharapkan, untuk menegosiasikan harga dengan penjualan Panitera. ‘Dazhe ma?' ' Adadiskon?', pelanggan setelah pelanggan akan bertanya.Harga di Harbin No. X adalah, namun, tidaknegotiable, dan tokoterus menjual barang-barang hanya pada harga yang ditandai pada tag harga resmi. Tapimengingat prevalensi tawar-menawar di pengaturan ritel lainnya – tidak hanya rendah-akhir getipengaturan tapi bahkan baru, high-end department store-pembeli yangenggan untuk melepaskan tawar-menawar harga. Mereka sering menolak untuk percaya Panitera penjualandesakan dicetak harga. Dalam satu kasus, ketika saya mengatakan sepasang pelangganada tidak ada diskon, mereka hanya meminta saya kedua kalinya, seolah-olah aku tidaksudah menjawab pertanyaan mereka. Satu orang adalah sangat terkejut bahwa adaada harga tawar-menawar di Harbin No. X yang ia berseru, ' tapi sekarangKami memiliki pasar ekonomi (shichang jingji), hal-hal telah berubah. ApaMaksudmu aku tidak bisa tawar-menawar ()jiangjia)?’Memang, diberikan kerja ekonomi pasar, pembelanja yang skeptistidak pernah mengambil harga pada nilai nominalnya, takut dia akan lewatkan pada DISKONoleh tidak mendorong cukup keras. Ketika kakak Lin dikutip harga 300 yuankepada suatu nasabah, ia menjawab, 'bagaimana 280?' 'Saya memberitahu Anda kebenaran',Lin menjawab plaintively. ' Saya tidak murah, bahkan satu sen. Ini adalahharga terendah, apapun lebih rendah dan kami tidak mendapatkan apa-apa!' Orang tidak membuatpembelian. Dalam contoh lain, setelah aku menolak untuk menawarkan diskon,Wanita pelanggan membungkuk dan bertanya dalam nada Apakah mungkinuntuk 'berbicara dengan manajer' tentang diskon. Banyak pelanggan tampakyakin bahwa, jika mereka hanya bertanya dengan cara yang benar, diskon akan menjadiakan datang.Seiring waktu, aku datang untuk menyadari bahwa masalahnya adalah salah satu membedakanantara pengaturan ritel. Hal ini terungkap kepada saya suatu hari ketika, setelah sayamenolak untuk menawarkan diskon, pelanggan wanita bertanya padaku, ' adalah counter iniHarbin No. X?''Apa?' Aku menjawab, bingung.' Apakah Anda (dioperasikan secara individualgeren) counter, atau...'Saya mengerti. ' Kami adalah pabrik langsung (penjualanchangjia zhixiao)', saya berkicau,menunjukkan bahwa counter tidak getioperasi. 'Kami tidak tawar.'3Kebingungan seperti itu berarti bahwa, di mata sebagian pembeli, Harbin No. Xitu tidak berbeda dari getipedagang, dan ini secara drastisterkikis banyak ibukota simbolis Harbin No. X mungkin telah diklaim sebagaipengecer besar, negara dijalankan pada hari-hari pra-reformasi dan melalui tahun-tahun awalreformasi ekonomi. Terlepas dari kenyataan bahwa menyimpan manajer bersikeras kepadaku bahwahanya dengan memasukkan toko, ' pelanggan Check kepercayaan mereka di Harbin No.Hanser■Lintasan lantai penjualan471461-492 073147 hanser (D) 7/11/06 08:52 halaman 471© 2006 SAGE publikasi. Semua Hak, milik. Tidak untuk penggunaan komersial atau distribusi yang tidak sah.oleh ANDI HARWAN KUNNA pada 3 November 2007 http://ETH.sagepub.comDownload dari X', bahkan kebanyakan pembeli punya sedikit kepercayaan bahwa Harbin No. X ataupenjualan Panitera dioperasikan sesuai dengan apa pun kecuali jangka pendek, laba-drivenmotif yang sekarang tampaknya menentukan semua pengaturan ritel di kota.Hal ini mungkin mengejutkan, kemudian, bahwa itu adalah pasangan tua (orang tuamenjadi sebuah kelompok yang jarang ditemukan dalam pengaturan ritel baru), berhenti pada zaman esCounter untuk melihat singkat, yang terus mengenali Harbin No. X sebagaipengecer tradisional, harga tetap. Orang tua membuat komentar kepada istrinyatentang tawar-menawar, yang ia berseru, ' ini adalah (toko) negaragongjia)!Anda tidak bisa tawar-menawar di sini!' Kami asisten lantai manajer, manajer Zhou, telahtelah berdiri di konter, dan mendengar hal ini ia berseri-seri pada saya dankemudian berkata kepada mereka, ' That's right, tetapi kamimenjamin kualitas barang-barang kami.'Strategi Shopper skeptisHarbin No. X janji kualitas barang (didukung oleh kebijakan kembali)tidak salah-satu yang pelanggan dianggap dengan keyakinan, namun. TokoPelanggan adalah pembeli skeptis, dan strategi pembelian mereka jelasmengungkapkan hal ini. Dengan mengimpor belanja strategi dimurnikan dalam getipasar keToko Departemen BUMN, pelanggan juga menunjukkanmengaburkan, dalam pikiran mereka, antara ritel pengaturan seperti Harbin No. X danpribadi pesaing.Dua praktik belanja mengurangi risiko paling umum yang dekatinspeksi barang dagangan dan praktek yang disebut 'Tiao' dalam bahasa Cina, istilahyang secara harfiah berarti ' Pilih' dan dalam praktek mengacu memilih yang terbaikdari sejumlah pura-pura identik item. Dekat inspeksi dan Tiaoadalah praktek-praktek yang saya kemudian akan melihat secara teratur dilakukan di getipakaian bazaarSaya juga belajar, mengejutkan mengingat bahwa strategi ini mengurangi risikomembeli barang dagangan yang buruk. Bahkan, saya menemukan bahwa pembeli di Harbin No.X itu sering lebih mendesak atas dua strategi daripada pembelidalam getipasar-situasi yang sebagian mencerminkan biaya lebih besardown coats I sold at Harbin No. X (about 300 yuan, roughly US$35)relatif jins, kemeja dan blus yang dijual di getipakaian Bazaar (40 untuk100 yuan, about US$5–12). (Pada tahun 2000, rata-rata upah sebulan di Harbinadalah yuan 580.) Sebaliknya, di high-end department store saya belajar,Pelanggan jauh lebih terfokus pada 'diskon' dibandingkan kualitas barang dagangan.Begitu sedangkan tawar-menawar telah menjadi praktek yang umum dalam kebanyakan ritel Cinapengaturan, dekat inspeksi dan Tiaotetap lebih kelas-dibatasi shoppingstrategi dan yang diperkuat oleh costliness relatif pembelian sayadiamati di Harbin No. X.Pemeriksaan barang dagangan adalah baris pertama pertahanan terhadapditipu untuk membeli barang-barang berkualitas rendah yang diisi getipasar.Pembeli di Harbin No. X secara teratur akan memeriksa setiap jahitan, hati-hatipercobaan dengan ritsleting masing-masing, dan erat meneliti kerah dan manset. Salah satu