代购

Husband and i are really glad that im in good contact with my class buddy, Suzi
although i didnt manage to make plenty of friends in class, 
its great that Suzi and i managed to sustain our friendship after the class ended
I guess partly because she studied and worked in Singapore (she is from china)
and also the fact that we are having similar struggles in paris
the difference is her husband is a chinese living in paris for more than 10 years.
Normally, we will hang out once a week, doing shopping and lunches

All along i know that she is doing 代购 
purchasing items on behalf of friends and etcs to send back to China
Is not an online business  as she informed that sending too much items will result in taxation
so, she only send items back to friends and contacts.
I have long heard about the milk powder scandal in china that affected HK
but i never expect that people are willing to import milk powder from faraway france!
She normally charge a percentage and for each delivery of 5 cans,
she can earn about 30eur all thanks to the falling euro
but when i see the amount of work and time that is required, 
I really wondered whether it is worth it
but i guess its good income for the unemployed wives like us

Since she started helping out at her mil restaurant 
The day we meet becomes the day she needs to buy and send her 代购 items
which totally opened my eyes on how high china's demand is on foreign items
Yesterday, we had our  代购 outing that left me so amazed!

Due to the falling euros, Chanel is increasing their price in April (up to 700eur)
so, her friends asked her to help purchase 2 channel bags
Maybe we chose the wrong chanel to go at the touristy shopping mall.
Despite being a monday and her queuing 1 hour before my arrival,
we were still stuck in a long queue just to enter the store!
The queue was so long that it made me felt that chanel costs only 1eur

Sadly, both outlets sold out the designs that she required and we went to another outlet
which was out of the way and has lesser tourists
we managed to enter the store in 20mins
apparently, the designs she wanted were sold out in france 
and the factory stopped the manufacturing till the price increase
but we managed to buy this design at eur3500!

Since is our first purchase in chanel,
we learnt about how you can only purchase 1 chanel bag in 2 months in frenace
i guess is their way of limiting the quantity of chanel in the world
I dont now whether is the same in the world so please remember to bring your ID 
if you are feeling rich and buying a chanel bag...

Apart from the chanel bag,
Suzi helped her friends to buy clothes from maje at 800eur 
okay, they are really rich in china!
and we went to the post office to send to her friends
I was expecting the usual france post office till Suzi brought me to the specialized chinese post office!
I will say, it is sort of a chinese version of DHL/Fedex
Just with all chinese staff and people are really bringing boxes of items to be send
From milk powder to comestics to chocolates to shoes to shampoo....
practically everything!
Apparently, most sends are 代购 and even taught suzi how and where to buy things in paris

The staff will weight the items for you
wrapped them up for you that you maximise how much to fit into the box
I was amazed at how a pair of shoes can be wrapped up till so small
then, you will do the mailing procedures and pay up
It is not that cheap, for a 3kg box, it costs about eur35!
but i guess the post is earning money that they have more than 1 outlets
and even provide home pick up service

Suzi told me that she charge her friend extra 5percent for the bag a her commission
since it was a close friend (normally is 10percent)
and she earned about eur 150 for the bag
is good money, but i think is rare that someone will get her to buy such high range bag
I was telling husband how suzi earned so much just for a bag
husband replied that if is me buying for my sg friend, be is a close or not close friend, 
i will only asked them to buy the postal and asked for no commission
haha, i think my husband knows me too well...

Anyway, i think 代购 is a easier way to earn a little income
and is not as stressful as having an online blogshop with worries on taxs etcs
Too bad, Singapore is doing well and we dont really need 代购