Tae Gui Le!!

Most Americans ( in my experience) are initially uncomfortable with the concept of bartering.  Most people get stressed out at the thought of it and long for a land with fixed (and tagged) prices.  I was no different when I first arrived in China.  Every time I was forced to barter, I was plagued with anxieties: how much should it cost? How much is reasonable? I don't want to overpay, but I also don't want to offend someone by offering too little.  I don't want to rob someone of their livelihood!  I spent a lot of time--and money!--just giving the sellers at barter-friendly markets their initial asking price (or only putting up a token argument).  I mean, I once had a man at one of the vendors roll his eyes at me and shake his hands when I said okay the first time--the vendor was trying to get me to argue with him for a lower price!

So this is our favorite shopping center, it is literally right off the subway stop.  The picture is taken from exiting the subway terminal, facing on of the many entrance to this underground shopping warren. 

This avoidance of bartering lasted a few months.  Until I realized just how much you could talk these sellers down.  And how much money I could be saving--and thus how much more shopping I could be doing.  You see my logic? Thus I began to study the behavior of the sellers as well as the buyers (Dave and Justin were very good bartering mentors).  It also helped that my Chinese language skills were slowly improving--many  vendors spoke English, but I discovered better results (i.e. lower prices) if we conducted most of our exchange in Chinese--"a special price for you, because your Chinese is so good!" Overtime I grew to both love and excel (in my humble opinion) at bartering.

It just keeps going. 

So what are some of these behaviors that result in shopping wins?  Well, the first is to go into a shop with absolutely no emotion (this includes fear).  If you are foreign, you are probably going to be crowded by the sellers shortly after you walk through the door, and they are likely going to follow you around (this happens to everyone, eventually, as it seems to just be how business is conducted in China.  I think it is a way to show the buyer that you are available to help them make purchases. However, if you are foreign you are approached almost immediately when walking into the store). So expect to have someone at your elbow almost as soon as you enter, unless they are busy with another customer.  You can tell them you are just looking, and sometimes they will drift away, sometimes they will "assist" you by pointing you in the direction of certain popular items.   If you walk in to a store and look a bit intimated by the sellers and what's going on, the vendor is going to assume you are not as familiar with shopping and bartering in these markets and is going to try and start at a higher asking price.

Look at this stuff--and it's price is up to you and  your skills!

When you find something you want, you must also remember to not show any kind of emotion. If you get too visibly excited about an item, the power is transferred from the buyer to the seller.  Now he or she knows you really want it, and are thus more likely to pay more for it.  So keep it cool. Maybe pick it up, look at it for a moment, set it down, and then drift away from it for a while.   Examine some other items with the same level of "meh" as you did that item you really want.  Drift back over to the item you really want and begin the hard part of bartering with the question: "Duo shao qian?" (How much?)

Now, if you are foreign, the asking price is just going to be higher.  It just is.  Because let's face it, you can afford it.   So let's imagine I am buying a tea set.  And the seller asks for something outrageous--let's say 400 yuan.  This is like 70.00 USD.  I know that not only is this inflated because the seller wants to get the most from a sale, but it is extra inflated because I am foreign.

Instances of me bartering, both in Beijing.  On the left is me at the Forbidden City arguing over the price of a very badly translating book and to the right is a man I bought a fan, two t-shirts, and a hoodie from...all for about $50. 

So my rebuttal is some kind of outraged sound (maybe a 'ha' or a 'snort' or a 'no').  My next words will be Tae Gui Le!!  This means too expensive.  Now it is the vendors turn. He is going to ask me how much I think it should be.  Since he has given me an outrageous price, I will deliver to him something equally outrageous.  I will say 30 yuan.  Some vendors will laugh, since they know that I am simply doing the opposite of their initial volley--asking for astronomically low in response to the astronomically high price they suggested.  Some will respond to my price with their own outrage, "No, no, no, it's impossible, it's impossible."  To which I would reply that 400 yuan is impossible.  They would then come down, maybe say 350.  I would come back with something more reasonable with 100.  He would say 275, I would say 130, he would say 200.  At this point, someone is getting frustrated, either me, because he is not coming down low enough, or the seller because I am not budging.  Eventually he will yell that this is as low as he can go.  Sometimes you can still push them, especially if I were to counter that 175 is as high as I will go.  Now you are at a standstill and it all depends on who blinks first.  Do. Not. Blink.

Walk away.   Say "bu yao" (don't want) and walk away.  Shrug your shoulders (maybe look a tad disappointed) and walk away.  Nine times out of ten this will result in the vendor calling you back and either saying "okay" to your last suggested price, or at the very least shouting out a lower price.  Maybe that is a price you can deal with.  Fork over the agreed upon yuan and walk away victorious--you have just halved the original asking price of that tea set. (As a side note, you probably should not pay more than 100-150 for a tea set at most of these stores).  Depending on how much energy you have for bartering that day, you can talk them down really low.  I once talked a lady down from a 450 yuan bag down to 90 yuan.  We hated each other by the end, but I got that bag for the price that I wanted.

Now, if the vendor does not call you back, don't sweat it.  You usually can find the same thing at one of the other vendors.  The lady I bought the bag from was the third vendor I'd done battle with that day. If you walk around and you cannot find it, you can always go back and pay him his lowest asking price.  The only time I recommend just getting the item you want is if you know you won't be back.  If you are visiting a place and are only there for a day and you will never go back, get it as low as you can and then just pay them.  You don't want to regret not getting something really awesome because you were haggling over 10 dollars.

Bartering takes practice.  You're probably going to overpay for a lot of items until you get the hang it.  I eventually fell in love with this system.  It was still a bit stressful (and exhausting), but it was also fun.  It's kind of like a game, and once you know the rules, it's a lot of fun to play.  The hardest rule to learn is how  much is reasonable to ask for something.  You learn this by watching others and also by your successes.  If you are able to get a tea set for 175, next time try 150.  If you can get it for 150, try 120.  If you can't seem to get it lower than 120, then you know that you should probably never pay more or less than 120 for a tea set.  Never more than 10-15 yuan for a fan, never more than 25-30 yuan for a t-shirt, 50-60 for a hoodie, etc.  You get to learn the more you barter.  Eventually, you will find yourself walking into stores, demanding a price, and budging very little from that price.  I walked into a fabric store during my last week in China, pointed to the fabric I wanted, said, "120 yuan, right?" (I'd gotten it for this price before from a different vendor).  He looked like he was going to argue, but before he could I looked him dead in the eye and said, "120 yuan." He said okay.

Some more traditional things you can buy.  The guy to the right is selling paper cuts (hanging in the background) and is doing Chinese Finger Painting--he is using ink and different parts of his hands to paint the pictures you see in the foreground.  He is in the middle of a painting in the photo. 

Learning to do this well is an uncomfortable process for many Americans.  We are just not used to the idea that we can argue price.  It's almost as if we've come to understand that the price tag has a reason for being exactly what it is marked.  If it wasn't worth that price, it wouldn't be marked that way--we accept that the price is accurately reflective of the value of the item.  Well if China has taught me anything, its that all that is totally arbitrary, and completely inflated.  So get comfortable with bartering, because once you get the hang of it, you are going to do some killer shopping.  And you are going to deeply resent returning to a land where the prices are fixed and you are pretty sure that item is not worth anywhere near what is on that price tag.

I was once told by a vendor that I "bartered like a old woman."  This might be the greatest compliment anyone has ever given me.




Also, I have to thank Miss Amanda Woomer for the photos for most of this blog--I didn't ever think to take photos of this place while I was in China, so she went and took some for me.  She also has a blog about her time in China, which you can check out here.