Buying a blender

Today I set-out with 1 task in mind, buying a blender! I didn't think that buying a blender would be too hard of a task but boy was I wrong! Bill and I know that breakfast foods are going to be very challenging here. Milk and cereal prices are outta this world. We're talking $7 for a 1/2 gallon of fresh skim milk and $10 for a box of cereal. No Thank You! They also have a ton of long life milk (ultra high temperature/processed milk) which I think tastes horrible. Even the soy milk is long life soy milk. Eggs are reasonably priced but you can only eat so many eggs before you really start worrying about your cholesterol. So anyway, fruits and veggies from the "wet market" are widely available and I see a lot of smoothies for breakfast in my future as long as I can get a blender! I head over to Times Square which is about a 2 mile walk from our apartment. Yes it's called Times Square, No it does not look anything like Times Square in NY and secretly a part of me always hopes if I show up there I will magically be teleported to the real NY Times Square! That hasn't happened yet but I'm going to keep wishing! Alright, back to the story, I get to the electronic section - picture a huge Macy's, where salespeople come up to you and ask you what you're looking for and explain the products to you. They do this here in Chinese, I nod, I smile and I keep looking at the 20 different models of blenders they have on display. Within 5 to 10 minutes of some lady yaking at me in mandarin I've made up my mind and point to the one I want. The lady runs to another person has a conversation, goes to a back room, comes back and starts speaking to me. I have no clue what she's saying so I point again at the blender I want. She keeps talking, I point again... "yi" I say. Yi means 1, I only want one and I thought I heard an "er" in there... er means 2. She starts writing on a piece of paper, goes and grabs a calculator and types in some numbers that are lower than the price advertised. "Okay, okay, hen hao" I tell her - (Hen hao is very good) heck I didn't know bargaining at department stores was allowed but I guess I just got a deal on a blender! She then hands me a piece of paper and I stand there waiting and looking at my blender. She finally points to an aisle and down a hallway and my light bulb goes on! In China you have to pay at a cashier and then you can get your item. So I find the cashier, hidden in a back corner of the store and pay only to return to the blenders to find the lady gone and my blender not on the shelf anymore! Finally after a few minutes she reappears with the blender in a box. Now she holds up a sign and keeps speaking to me... the sign has the #2 on it so I'm hoping/guessing it means 2 year warranty but I have no clue and at this point I just want my blender at home so I say xie xie (thank you) and away I go! Whew, that was challenging, what would normally be a 15 minute process turned into an hour adventure and now of course there is the task to get back home. Yep, no taxis in sight so I start walking figuring I can hail one on my way, just my luck all the ones that pass me are full! As if people don't stare enough, here's a silly western woman walking 2 miles with a blender! :-) It was all worth it though as I made myself a fabulous smoothie when I got home! I drank it so fast I forgot to take a picture. The next item up for purchase is an e-bike so I'm not stuck walking with anymore electronics!