Glasses By Committee

There is this famed glasses mall that I've heard of here in Beijing near Panjiayuan.  Seeing that my days in Beijing are coming to an end, it was time to check it out.

It's FOUR stories of anything to do with optical needs.  Each shop has frames for you to try on.  It's overwhelming at first.  I spent half hour just looking around, scared to even walk into a store.  A lot of it had to do with the fact I didn't know how to say a number of optical terms in Chinese, but I realized I'll just do what I always do...make it happen.  Near-sighted?  I just said I have trouble seeing things far away.

Need equipment, here's your store.

So when I finally got the courage to walk into the store, I started trying on frames.  I stuck with ones that were rather conservative.  And with technology, I could do it by committee.  How you say?  I took selfies with each frame and then sent them to a group chat and had people vote.  #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7 -- Let's try some square frames

#8

#9

#10

#11 -- WAY too Hipster

#12 -- The big bold dark frames

#13

#14

#15 -- Leopard print frames

#16 -- Chester Chen circa 1970

#17 -- Harry Potter

#18

So I took the photos at the first store after the committee and I chose which frames and that first store was asking for 900RMB and 500RMB just for the frames.  So I went to a different store and pulled up the picture of what I wanted and asked for the cheapest frames of that style.  They gave me an eye exam, I picked the cheapest lenses. The glasses were made on the spot.

$58 and a half hour later, selection #5 was a new pair of glasses.

I went down a floor and just walked into a shop and asked for the cheapest #17 frames.  $25 dollars and I had another pair of glasses.  I was so excited by my purchases for what seemed to me inexpensive glasses but I KNOW ONIONS is holding his tongue and not telling me I got ripped of because I didn't bargain.  Well, I did on the first pair and saved about $12, but this second pair I was amazed I got them for $25 I just reveled in my consumer surplus even though it was smaller than it could have been.