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To Bargain or Not To Bargain
Tips from an American English teacher living in Turkey. I had an interesting discussion in my Business-English class last week. The topic for the night was business negotiations. As a warm-up, I asked my students when it is and isn’t appropriate to bargain in Turkish culture. As a foreigner from a country where not much bargaining happens, I thought it may prove to be interesting. The discussion lasted an hour and certainly caused me to think.The following list is what emerged.
Things you DON’T bargain for:
- Doctor’s visits
- Name-brand clothing stores (e.g. Levis or Mango)
- Cigarettes
- Luxury goods
- Bus and Plane Tickets
- Books at the bookstore
- Movie tickets
- Pharmacy
- Large grocery stores (or Walmart type stores)
Things you DO bargain for:
- Furniture
- Taxi rides
- Shoes
- Clothes (depending on the store)
- Fruits and Vegetables at the bazaar
- Cosmetics
- Cars
- Houses
- Classes (most bargained for the price of the English course they were taking)
We role-played the sale of a pair of women’s shoes at a high-end shop (9-West,) which was very interesting. The greatest piece of leverage I noticed was that people can almost always get a lower price if they offer to pay cash for goods received, i.e. not using a credit card, and not requiring a receipt. This allows the merchant to make a cash sale, not paying sales tax or credit card fees. This strategy works best by bargaining to the lowest possible price, and then asking “what if I pay cash?”
I was surprised to hear that some people bargain in every possible setting and even haggle over pennies when buying things like spinach or parsley from the bazaar (farmer’s market). The reason this made me think is that I realized I come from a culture where virtually no bargaining happens. We only see this age-old method of selling and buying practiced when negotiating major sales like a house or car. It made me wonder; what do you bargain for? Would any Americans add anything to my list of things we bargain for in the States (which includes only houses and cars)?
This post was written by Jake Olson from a Foreign Perspective. Jake writes many times a week about life in Turkey from “a Foreign Perspective.” If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!
14 thoughts:
Pretty much almost common sense. Or you'll just know when it's right to bargain or not.
If it's a mass produced object, sold in a huge store where people come, pick up an item, then go, (i.e. no decision making involved), you don't bargain. For example you might bargain for a home entertainment system costing somewhere in the thousands but not for a cd.
I'm surprised people would bargain for fruits.
I think it's a decision made by sellers if they think it's ok based on their perspective.
In most countries that produce lots of fruits and vegetable, I thinks it's common to bargain.
Another related topic would be when and when not to tip. I live in a country (Australia) where very little tipping is done, and it is almost never obligatory. Typically Australians get confused by when and when not to tip when travelling overseas.
Back on topic: Bargaining does take getting used to, for those of us from "non-bargaining" countries. In Thailand, I found that a good rule of thumb is that they won't allow bargaining when there is a price displayed, but it is customary to do so otherwise.
Perhaps Jake Olson from a Foreign Perspective could meet or has met Mert, blogger of Let's meet where the continents meet! [Everything about Istanbul, The Meeting of Two Continents, Its importance on World Peace, Night Life, History]. Maybe they could or have collaborate (d) their remarkable endeavors!
I have this client who's got this bizarre mindset whereby she comes over as shocked and dismayed when I tell her she can't just use my services for free.
Out of this faux-fury, I haggled her into a monthly retainer, whereby she pays me a fixed fee regardless of whether I fill the hours or not.
So it's now her responsibility to fill those hours.
It's one thing to be Turkish, but it's another to be a Yorkshireman.
There's this joke: who invented copper wire? It was a Scotsman and a Yorkshireman fighting over a one penny piece...
@Wayne: That was really interesting!
Surely, with graphic design services (at least with me) there is some room for bargaining but free!? I think that is a bit over the top.
I have a ready response for those who email me and ask for free (spec) design work:
"Thank you for your inquiry. However, we do not undertake any speculative work. I encourage you to read this article."
I agree with the first commenter that it's common sense. Identifying the right items to bargain isn't that hard as long as we make use of logical reasoning.
Americans bargain for hotel rooms...never knew until I worked at one.
As a Turkish man who does not bargain much for a Turk, I find it really difficult sometimes to live abroad. I live in Germany for the last 2 years and find it really amazing that there is almost no bargaining allowed.
In Turkey the whole thing is an art. The seller says I can sell this to you with this price, but only to you, since you are a student/old person/from the same city/etc.. This makes you feel like you are winning something. Also it is not the item but the place it is sold. You can bargain for the same item at some place but can not at another.
The culture and customs of people are reflected in this process. The Germans never go into this trouble since they do not like expressing so much emotion on little things.
"Americans bargain for hotel rooms...never knew until I worked at one."
I don't know if you'd call it bargaining, but when I went to Vegas last week with some friends we slipped the clerk a $20 and got nicer rooms.
Is "tipping before you receive a service" bargaining or a bribe? LoL.
I think I need to send my father to Turkey to live.
Growing up my father haggled over everything. Certainly to the point my mother and I were mortified. If it were a tangible good he would ask to speak to the manager, and as stated in your post he always offered to pay with cash.
I specifically remember an incident with a bed. He haggled for nearly 2 hours. While he had gotten them to drop the price by several hundreds of dollars he walked out of the store over the last ten bucks. My mom and I were livid having stood for hours and leaving without a bed. My mom rarely gets angry but she screamed at him to go get that "damn bed" and told him he had embarrassed her for the last time.
Like Markk, I'm from Australia and there is not a lot of bargaining here. When we were on our honeymoon in Fiji my wife was determined to bargain for gifts we were buying people. She was so bad at it that the price actually went up. The final insult for her was when she had finished talking the price up she was told that it was $9.00 each even though she thought she was buying a pair. She still bought them and I still laugh about it.
@ilker: Her attitude is quite unique, but I can't afford to make exceptions for any client. The rules I apply to my clients are there for a reason.
Some get better rates, but that's because they're giving me more work.
So yes, there's an element of bargaining, but it's give & take, not all take and no give!
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