Haggling... where are you on this activity?

I hadn't seen this posted. I was thinking about trips to Asia, and about the "custom" of haggling.

A lot of the time we spend in Asia is going to the night/street markets.

To come to the point, my BFF (the guy that I normally travel with) LOVES to haggle, he isn't happy if he can't get the price down as low as he can.

I, on the other hand, HATE it. To me, it's a waste of my time. If the price is what I want to pay, I buy it. If not, I walk on to the next stall.

How about you and/or your travel partner??

 

When we lived in Italy my mother went to the flower market every week and haggled endlessly. I actually think the vendors would have been disappointed if she didn't haggle. She was taking the food from the mouths of their children, but they sold her the flowers at a much reduced price. In fact, take these as well since you are such a good haggler! Then again, my mother was also European.

 

I do not love to haggle but I am reasonably proficient at it, for a white American woman. I'll do it at flea markets and estate sales and at markets in Asia. I do research ahead of time to see what is culturally appropriate in terms of whether or not to do it, and what the discounting norms are.

 

I try to haggle whenever possible

 

Haggling . . where are you on this activity?


Give me ten bucks and I'll tell you

 

That’s ridiculous, I’ll give you four!

 

I know a guy who can tell us what this is actually worth. Let me give him a call.......

 

I'm not too crazy about haggling, but I'll do it if I can get a better price. LOL I haven't traveled to Asia, but my friends who have been to the market places in Thailand, Philippines, etc. told me that it's pretty much the norm out there.

I've been to Jamaica (northern shore) a few times and a lot of haggling takes place there too. The locals depend on tourism for a good part of their income, so they are always trying to sell you something on the streets. Haggling is a pretty much the norm there too, especially in their street markets.

We use to have a popular flea market called "Maxwell Street" here in Chicago. My dad use to drag me down there on some weekends when I was a kid. LOL He use to haggle all the time with some of the sellers and use to get some good deal on tools and whatnot. So, I guess that's where I learned how to haggle, even though I'm not always comfortable doing it.

 

Ultimately, I'd rather not haggle. I am good at it, however, so I guess I've got that going for me, which is nice.

 

I hate haggling. Anytime. Anywhere. If something is worth the price asked, I buy it. If not, I don't. When I travel overseas, I purposely avoid situations where haggling is the norm.

The only time I haggle is car buying. I deal only with private sellers and operate on the assumption that the price is jacked 10% because buyers expect a 10% discount. (When I sell I add 10% to what I really want.)

 

Don't haggle, dicker!

 

Only really haggle when buying a car.

Many moon ago when I worked retail, I remember some non-US folks trying to haggle the price of some shoes with me. They got really irritated that I didn’t move at all from my price. I was in high school & not very worldly so I just said WTF & laughed at them.

 

I hate it. One time I was in Istanbul and needed to buy something to cover my head before going inside the Blue Mosque. It took forever because when I would ask "how much" it was met with "how much do you want to pay" and then lots of trying to get me to purchase carpets. So frustrating. I ended up having to borrow one at the mosque because I could not seem to purchase one because no one would give me a number.

 

Same. It's context dependent. I'm obviously not going to argue with the guy at CVS about how much for a bottle of Diet Coke, but there are definitely places where it's just part of the game. I don't mind doing it at a cigar shop in Cozumel or a Beijing street market. The only part I find annoying is that sometimes you just don't want to buy the particular thing they're selling, but they figure you're negotiating.

 

I don't enjoy the process that much and I would rather not pay above market value, but my savings should more than offset the time wasted in negotiations. I try to get a sense of what others are paying for something and offer that, take it or leave it, to avoid wasting everyone's time. When buying a huge basket in a street market in Bangkok, I offered what the tourist in front of me paid for theirs and the seller sold it to me, but seemed disappointed that he wasn't able to fleece me for more. After I got home, I saw a very similar basket at I think Bed Bath and Beyond for about the same price. Moral: it's often hard to beat the competition available to us in the U.S.

When selling something, like a car, I figure out what I would feel is a good deal if I were a buyer and ask for that price, firm.

You know where it's often worth negotiating is for non-monetary savings. For example, when I buy an item of furniture on craigslist, instead of asking for a lower price, I will ask the seller to deliver it to me and/or reassemble it, which saves me a lot of time and effort since I don't have a truck and I'm not very handy.

 

I LOVE to look for a bargain... I'm actually a bit obsessed with finding the best price possible FOR the best quality/item I want. (Aka why I love HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, etc. I'll just shop till I find exactly what I want, at a killer price.)

But haggling? I hate it. I also don't like being stuck around others when they do it.

I'm not independently wealthy... I work because I have to, not because I want to. (Though very grateful to have a job!!!) But, I am very lucky to be better off than I was in my teens and 20's and 30's, and I don't forget this.

I just always feel a bit miserly when I try to bring someone down on a cost if I feel they have less than I do, and if the decrease in price will affect their personal finances. (Hourly store clerks are different. I have gently haggle there, if an item is damaged.)

Now, if someone is richer than I am? I can probably haggle guilt-free, but it's still not something I enjoy.

Offer me a price I like, or I'll just keep shopping till I find that upfront price I like!

 

I'm the same way. Having to get my groceries wherever I can vs shopping on sale is really killing me.

 

When it comes to haggling, I think it has a LOT to do with your personal situation.

My personal family has a wide range of varied economic situations, and obviously I know members of my own family pretty well.

We've got folks in our family with literally more money than they know what to do with-- or could ever spend during their lifetime.
And then we have for a lack of a better description --"normal everyday folks" within our family.

We even have different classes of the rich in our own family. On one hand we have the idiot son who got very rich off of his inheritance from his father. And he's got A LOT more on the way, when his 93 yr old mom eventually passes.

And then we have the very successful self made multi-millionaire. This man I have a ton of respect for, since he never inherited as much as a penny from his parents. He's a venture capitalist who graduated from Dartmouth undergrad, and then went to grad school at Harvard.

Btw, I'm most certainly not wealthy. But my wife and I live pretty comfortably. Neither of us had a job in over 20 yrs. We've never had a mortgage or a car payment during our entire 30 yr marriage. I was an independent preowned auto dealer during my career.

My point is, I HAGGLE ON EVERYTHING WHEN POSSIBLE. I have too much respect for money NOT to haggle. I've saved a ton of money over the years haggling. Some places expect you to haggle with them. They fix that haggle "quotient" in to their original offering price, no different than someone who is offering a home for sale. They jump for joy inside when you don't haggle with them.

Some of these richer folks in our family, consider haggling to be in poor taste. They consider it beneath them.

I get why they don't care, because as I said they have more money in their coffer than christ.

I know for a fact they'd actually rather overpay for an item, than come off as one who is in the position where they need to haggle.

I don't think I'll ever in my lifetime get that rich, where I don't care about negotiating the best price possible.

When I want to give money away for nothing, I try to find one of the many wonderful charities that can truly use it.

 

I hated it when I was selling gold, that people thought I was going to haggle on my prices. My theory is that since gold does not lose it's value and my idea was to just get my money back, with a little extra profit, that there is no room for haggling.