G'day ,
Life is simple in Germany (and Australia). When you want to buy something, you go into a shop, choose the item and pay for it. The item has a price and we don't (usually!) try to negotiate (1) for it.
That's not how things work in some countries. In these places you shop at a market where nothing has a fixed price.
My experiences of bargaining (2) come from Indonesia. My Indonesian teacher explained a couple of points before I travelled there for the first time:
1. The seller has different prices for different people - cheapest for locals, mid-priced for Indonesians from other parts of the country and most expensive for foreign tourists.
2. For most Indonesians, tourists are rich, because they have enough money to travel to places like Indonesia.
3. If you agree on a price with a seller, it is really not polite not to buy what you have bargained for.
When I was there, prices in Indonesia were cheap and my Australian money went a l-o-n-g way. I didn't really need to bargain. BUT it's a cultural thing - sellers expect to negotiate a price with a buyer. So I did.
Usually I didn't try very hard. I felt bad starting super low so that we ended up at about half of the seller's offer. Often I didn't reduce the price much at all.
Except once.
The friend I was travelling with really wanted one special picture.
The seller said his price and I went very low with my offer. He took a moment, but reduced his price - a lot. We went back and forth (3) a little more.
In the end my friend got her picture for about half of the seller's starting price and he included a second picture for me for nearly nothing.
I was pleased (but surprised) with the result. However, I don't think I could have done it for something I wanted. That time was easy because my emotions weren't part of the deal. It would have been easy to walk away.
Have you had any experiences bargaining with people? Can I bargain at markets here in Germany? Just hit 'Reply' if you have something to say.
'Bye for this week,
Andrea
(1) negotiate - to try and arrange a (new) price through discussion and compromise
(2) bargaining - where the buyer and seller try and agree on a price for an item. Negotiating.
(3) back and forth - he said a price, then I said a price
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