travel blog - how to haggle, a la kirby

now i have to say
that something about my stay in china
all those years ago
changed something within me
now,
when i find a brilliant tourist market
those long dormant instincts
for haggling
came flaring back to life
i walked the market with erin and sarah
up and down the street
and into the many side streets
checking out the local wares made for tourists
i didn´t want anything in particular
but erin and sarah did
and we proceeded to walk along
asking the prices of pants, shirts, bags and wallets
all hand woven by the local women apparently
whether this is true or not
is another matter
seeing as many of the people
were selling the same things
this however,
made things very easy
when one starts comparing apples to apples
the most interesting thing about haggling
is that you gain more by doing less
so,
rule 1. never seem interested in what you really like

rule 1.a. establish a code word for the main haggler for when you do find something that you like

rule 2. never pay more than HALF of the lowest starting offer after you´ve checked out at least a half a dozen stalls
(as a general rule, i start off at about a third the lowest starting price)

rule 3. never give in, or speak a higher price than your main haggler, once the haggling begins
(or as my lil bro calls it, ¨never break rank¨)

rule 4. never take anything they say personally and always smile
(you´d be surprised how far a smile goes)
rule 4.a. ask what their name is and ask a lot of questions that have nothing to do with the item you wish to procure to keep them off balance and learn more about them

rule 5. walk away... a LOT - you can always go back, tho if you do, let THEM make the first move and call out a new price *wink*
rule 5.a. call them by name when you pass them agani and say hi or make a joke about how rich/handsome/pretty/strong/etc. they are or something

and that´s the general gist of it
the rest is all ... arte!
=P
hehhee
i have to say
after an a pretty much sleep-free night in the bus
haggling in the market
sure got me relaxed
it´s even cooler
when you don´t REALLY want anything
and are just haggling for your friends
the irony of it all is
that my tender hearted companions
felt that serious haggling could be taking advantage
of these poor primitive people´s dire circumstances
and life of bare subsistence
and so a couple of them
actually paid MORE than what i´d haggled the price down to
now if anything can make a true haggler choke,
this is it...
poor indigenous primitive market man/lady with gold rolex on wrist:
¨ok, final price, i sell you 2 for 70Q ¨
tender hearted naive friend give him 80Q
because she feels i am ripping him off
p.i.p.m. m/l w.g.r.o.w runs away laughing to his friend in the next stall
...
yeah, serious
y´know what i also find very very difficult to watch?
jewellry guy goes,
¨160Q for this amazing hand made silver jewellry¨
t.h.n.f. goes,
¨ok!¨
luckily i didn´t faint
and had the presence of mind to scream ¨NO!¨
and immediately followed that with, ¨don´t pay more than HALF!¨
even tho my psychic haggling instincts had told me
that buddy jewelry guy had at least tripled the price
when our t.h.n.f. kept admiring the piece before asking the price
in the end,
i realized a tiny bit of enlightenment
if a person is happy to pay a price
let them pay it
and walk away
they won´t appreciate anyone telling them that they got ripped off
especially when i found the same hand made jewellry at another stall
and haggled it down to 30Q in less than 30 seconds
while walking to, by, and away
from the guy trying to sell them to me
i figure,
if a person spends a sizable amount of money on something
they´ll value it all the more
and there´s nothing wrong with allowing the locals to fleece the tourists
after all,
it makes the tourists feel better
knowing that they´re taking CARE of the locals
of course,
they don´t realize that alot of these poor vendors
drive away in very nice vehicles at the end of the day
and have a perfect set of teeth...
in line with the flow of the idea of taichi
i found myself haggling for a price
that i knew would be fair for the merchant AND make my friends happy
very weird
but fun nevertheless
as it took all of my so-called ¨talent¨
to manage such a fine balance
and none of the transactions took more than a minute or so
=)
that said,
a few incidents still occurred
where my friends WANTED to pay more
i just walked away with a smile on my face