Somewhere along the way, I started buying everything online. My mother didn’t get it at first, especially when it came to food. “The supermarket downstairs has it. Why the hell do you have to buy it online?” “It’s cheaper online!” That was usually my answer, and I figured I had solid reasoning behind it. Look — opening a shop on Taobao is basically opening a shop nationwide. You’re up against sellers from all over the country. If you don’t sell cheap, someone cheaper will. Competition that fierce has to drive margins down, right? And for most electronics, online prices really are lower than official ones. So I took it for granted that local brick-and-mortar stores, stuck with worse supply channels than the official ones and Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei, must be more expensive. And then reality kept slapping me in the face.