Mystery selling technique: day 5 (and I find a man)

They finally started to sell stuff! After an hour speech about how senior citizens should feel empowered to make their own decisions, it set the perfect stage for scamming the elderly to make their own purchasing decisions. First up was a jade pillow cover that supposedly healed all of your illnesses. It was 300 RMB, when it was obviously fake jade that was worth maybe 30 RMB. It didn't matter because there was 'limited' time and quantity, so the audience went nuts fighting for this piece of crap. My grandma really wanted one but thankfully my grandpa wouldn't give her money. While they were busy selling more over-priced items, one of the staffers was busy schmoozing with me telling me that my grandparents looked healthy for their age, I was a good granddaughter for accompanying them this early in the morning, and that I looked like I was very well educated. So I told him I was a Ph.D student, he responded, "That's what I thought." At the end of the event, they handed everyone free toothpaste (as pictured) and I could've walked away with a boyfriend. Too bad he would be useless in the US cause my grandma really liked him.

Mystery selling technique: day 4

Every morning at 6:30am, my grandparents attend a 'seminar' where they come back with a ton of free stuff. Curious as to what this 'seminar' was about, I joined them a couple days ago. There I was, sitting among a sea of senior citizens listening to a loud man talk about how the young should respect the elderly and how senior citizens should not be treated like pets. At the end of the 1.5 hour talk, there was no mention of anything being sold. Instead, the speaker told us we were all getting 2 bags of Tide detergent and encouraged the audience to bring their friends back the next day; if a full house, he promised everyone 2 bottles of red wine. Well, as pictured above, it was a full house and now we can have a wine and wontons party. Today, I will be attending the seminar again to see if there will be any selling or just more brain-washing. Stay tuned!