Bargaining
initially i was rather enthusiastic about bargaining.... cos like u can actually feel a bit accomplished if u successfully sha1 jia4 and got something for good price... but there comes a point where something is actually very cheap already, yet you wonder if person is cheating you when he/she says he/she is not making a profit. and if u really think about it, u are already getting it for a good price, but yet u just want to make sure that u are not being cheated. then u start wondering if u are being too jian4 and not even letting person who's selling you earn a bit of money. like seriously i dun think reducing price by 5 yuan makes me lose out a lot but then perhaps 5 yuan makes a lot of difference to the seller... u wonder if you should be kind and let person earn some money or be totally selfish and minimize his profit. and you get tired of bargaining and u start wondering why you are bargaining to save that few yuan... and so i've decided not to really buy anything anymore unless i really need it or really like it. sigh dunno. hmm but some Chinese can really be quite li4 hai4 but rather jian4. like they want something, bargain bargain... then vendor dun want to sell but like dun care, ying4 ying4 only give seller the price they want to buy merchandise for, then walk away, leaving vendor to curse at his/her own bad luck...
2 comments:
felt the same way when shopping in vietnam. it's like i would have willingly paid $10 for a particular item in spore and yet here i was trying to cut it down to less than $2 with the vietnamese storekeeper. in the end decided that i would buy anything w/o bargaining if the price was already way below what i would pay in spore. couldn't bring myself to haggle with the locals hawking their wares.
- faith
but bargaining for the sake of bargaining is fun and a useful skill to master. Besides, shopkeepers know that tourists are predisposed to bargaining and they are likely to have inflated the asking price anyway. We don't bargain at Taka 'cause 1) it's damn malu, 2) you won't get your way, and 3) everyone (rich or poor) faces the same price. I would think that price discrimination is a fairly common practice in poorer nations where tourists are slapped with higher prices (but are still considered low to us).
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