Haggling,do you feel guilty?

[Kadilo]

double post 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Kadilo

[ChakaKhan]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Over the border in Burma last week, the touts wanted to sell me viagra.

250bht they say, can buy for 50bht I say

100bht they say, can buy for 50bht I say

100bht for 2 packets they say, and I caved and bought.

 

To answer your second question,

I later haggled in a similar way with the 'elderly lady' I was about to use one on.

(the pills worked, after an impressive number of beers,  in case you were thinking they were fake)

Ahh Burma Market--tried it ONCE--ugh

Hey You--Sunglasses!  I point to ones on my head

Hey--Watch!  Show my phone-clock

Pack of smokes--Sorry friend those will kill ya!

Liquor--fake--and I'm high on Life!

Viagra--Sorry friend I still have a little life left down there!

Best one--Guy offers me XXX Dvds--I whisper it free on the internet! lol

Cant miss the big clear tub on way back full of taboo goodies--saw a giant sex toy! (the dvds too)

[tropo]

29 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

If he price is ok by me I rarely haggle. I too cringe when you hear foreigners arguing ridiculously over peanuts then get all offended when they won’t budge. It’s like they feel they have to make a scene. 

To me it’s just not worth the hassle. 

I'm the same. I really hate haggling and the way some cheap charlies haggle at the markets is cringeworthy. I wouldn't want to shop with the OP's haggling friend. My wife haggles a bit at markets, but she's Asian and it's not a bad look for her. She's happy to get her 20 baht or 50 baht savings - it makes her feel good. Most of it is junk anyway and most of it she won't end up using.

[South]

Your first sentence mentioned 'Pattaya'. Therein is your answer.

 

Nothing ever good has come out of that, erm 'Family resort'.

[tropo]

8 minutes ago, ChakaKhan said:

 Best one--Guy offers me XXX Dvds--I whisper it free on the internet! lol

 

1

I feel for those guys and the Polaroid camera guys... holding on to an era long gone.

[tropo]

2 minutes ago, South said:

Your first sentence mentioned 'Pattaya'. Therein is your answer.

 

Nothing ever good has come out of that, erm 'Family resort'.

LOL. Any excuse for a Pattaya bashing, but your attempt is beyond feeble. No cigar for you.

[BritManToo]

7 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

Ahh Burma Market--tried it ONCE--ugh

Hey You--Sunglasses!  I point to ones on my head

Hey--Watch!  Show my phone-clock

Pack of smokes--Sorry friend those will kill ya!

Liquor--fake--and I'm high on Life!

Viagra--Sorry friend I still have a little life left down there!

Best one--Guy offers me XXX Dvds--I whisper it free on the internet! lol

Cant miss the big clear tub on way back full of taboo goodies--saw a giant sex toy! (the dvds too)

The funny thing is, it's all changed.

On the green bus, I was the only white guy, at the border hardly any whites, in the market almost deserted.

Five years back the place would have been packed with white foreigners, surrounded by packs of touts.

As a white man, I was almost invisible to immigration, don't even need to put my backpack through the x-ray machine.

On the bus back at the two police checkpoints, when the police board and shout 'passports', they don't mean me, zero interest.

 

It's a funny old world!

[WhiteTrash]

I always give them the price they ask for, sometimes a bit extra, they need it more than me

[catman20]

i dont feel guilty about haggling.

yes there is a polite way of doing it.

your mate is right u need to grow a pair.

your mate may also be right in saying thats why you dont have any money.

[Ks45672]

12 minutes ago, WhiteTrash said:

I always give them the price they ask for, sometimes a bit extra, they need it more than me

Giving them extra while they're ripping you off lol

They must really love to meet a mug like you... 

[catman20]

16 hours ago, sipi said:

Farang khi neow mak mak. 

please get it right if your going to use Thai phrases.

he is being Prayut. ask an intelligent Thai if you can find one. 

[soistalker]

A high percentage of the time, the seller's first price is three times what she will acceot for the item. Do you think she'd feel bad if you bought it at that price? Rather, she'd feel happy that she cheated you.

That being said, feel free to haggle as much as you want, but always keep it friendly. Your friend can hold his ground on the price he is willing to pay; and the seller can hold her price. That's bargaining.  

[LoZth]

I haggle all the time, an example.

 

The oldish woman selling watches quoted a ''good price'' for you to a bloke I was sat with, eventually she said what the good was, 2000Bht for a copy Rado!!!!!

 

He offered her 500bht, she came down to 1.500, he stuck with 500, her next was 1000Bht, he still stuck with 500.

 

He got all the rubbish about her boss will sack her/her kids will starve ect ect.

 

Then she walked off yapping (probably insults) in Thai.

 

She came back not too long after and said, with a bit of an attitude, OK 500bht.

 

When he told her no he didn't want it now because she'd tried to rob him with her first price she went off in a big strop!

 

 Haggle every time.

[Gecko123]

These days not that much opportunity for haggling. Don't like the price, smile politely, move along. Someone pulls a fast one, don't shop there anymore. Shopkeepers figure things out pretty quickly. Can recall very very few examples of seeing Thais haggle in public markets (over produce prices at least) or even most shops. Seems to be a dying custom. But still important to know the price beforehand, even if you remember the price from last week. Keep a close eye on the scale needle as well.

[Chassa]

13 hours ago, The manic said:

555

Wrong! Blackfellas bin there 40000 tears - so they say!

[klauskunkel]

if you feel guilty about haggling, hug a vendor. 

[BTB1977]

Scotland is not a english speaking country.  I have friends from there and I only understand maybe one word in every sentance. And many are very cheap. That is a fact. 

[robblok]

12 hours ago, tropo said:

Actually, this is not necessarily true. There are often times when goods that are hard to move are sold at break-even or less, just to get rid of them and get money back or most of it. The person might also have decided to go out of business, and he has to get back as much cash as possible. I've done this myself - Made good profit on selling a large part of the stock, then broke even on part of it and then sold the last under cost - still making a profit overall.

Ok let me rephrase he would make less of a loss if he sells then if he does not. Because in all of those occasions your talking about that extra sale will decrease the loss. So the seller still benefits from the sale. My point was a seller wont make any sales that will increase his losses. 

[Nurseynutcase]

18 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Nonetheless an interesting topic.

 

Like most of us who have lived here for a few years, I suspect that we will haggle at times when in a 'haggling' environment.

 

Which is why I gave up markets to buy my veg. and the like - once it became too obvious that a few were more than happy to 'rip me off'...

 

Their loss,- as I would have preferred to give my money to the small guys, but turned to superrmarkets who had written prices ☹️.

When i first came to Thailand I bought my vegetables in the local market - then I found out I was paying a much higher price than the locals would.  However I persisted and over the weeks the price came down and down again.  I now pay the right price.  Sometimes persistence pays off.  Having said that, the hairdresser I used to go to put her prices up each time I visited - I am talking about 100 baht at time - so i gave up on her and went somewhere else - the price is still a little higher than the locals but significantly less than the first lady.

 

I will haggle on the clothes stalls, sometimes I succeed sometimes not.  Sometimes when I go to pay the asking price I get an unasked for discount.  As someone earlier said - it is always good to be polite.

 

Just my thoughts and views I know others may disagree.

[geronimo]

I tend to do the opposite and offer more ..... works for me!

[AlQaholic]

I can't be bothered with haggling, it's a waste of my time and I do not see any pleasure in it whatsoever. If there are no price tags on the stuff, I will simply not buy.

[Ks45672]

5 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

I can't be bothered with haggling, it's a waste of my time and I do not see any pleasure in it whatsoever. If there are no price tags on the stuff, I will simply not buy.

I usually have a look at the products and if they ask why I'm walking away I tell them it's because they forgot to put the price stickers on the items

[Gecko123]

Favorite story about haggling in the fresh market...

 

Me: How much per kilo for carrots?

Vendor #1: 50 baht per kilo.

Me: Thanks, but I think I'll keep looking.

 

At vendor #2 (who had overheard interaction with vendor #1):

Me: How much per kilo for carrots?

Vendor #2 : 40 baht per kilo.

Me: OK. One kilo of carrots.

 

Scale says 800 grams, but she asks for 40 baht anyway, which just happened to work out to 50 baht per kilo.

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Gecko123

[varun]

It's very simple..your "friend" sounds like a little douche and a cheap charlie.

If his behavior irks you, just stop hanging out with him.
If he asks you what's up just say

"you're a nice-enough guy, but you're a penny-pinching douche when you go out and I can't roll with that"

 

Just because you work with him, doesn't mean you need to be chummy with him.

 

 

[NoshowJones]

No, never, ie, in MBK at the Smartphone floor. 4 I think, they usually ask a lot more for something than what they are worth because most tourists, and that is what a lot of their customers are, are not wise to this, and well they know it.

Always haggle there, I saw the same small adapter priced from 100 Bt to 350 Bt.

[NoshowJones]

18 hours ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

If the traders relented they still are profiting. Just not the huge fleecing they expect. The sell stuff like t-shirts at 10x markup from normal markets just cause they see a white man. Clearly it is racism, nothing less.


 

I would say greed, more than racism.

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

Have & will haggle from time to time....My wife only does if the price is above market......

 

I have been embarrassed watching how some farangs treat vendors....Talking insultingly back/down to them while offering a ridiculously low low amount of money..... 

 

An @s*hö!e is an @s*hø!e no matter what country borders they cross....Even worse when they consider themselves above everybody else....

 

Why even associate with this person?

When myself and Mrs Possum were in the markets in Bangkok, if I wanted to buy something, she would tell me to wait around the corner while she bought it for me. No prizes for guessing why.

[Classic Ray]

I can't understand the problem, it is all the laws of supply and demand. As shoppers, we have been conditioned in the West to accept whatever price is on the ticket, which has been suitably inflated to cover the high wages, rent and taxes the vendor pays. But do you think Apple or IBM pay whatever price the vendor asks for when they buy components?

 

Just decide how much the item is worth to you, offer a lower price, and after the back and forth if they don't agree with what it is worth to you, move on to the next stall. But do buy it if they meet your price, rude not to.

[Lucky mike]

Shopping allows you to haggle, you have the money they have the goods negotiation is part of the process.  As long it is done with good humour and respect....smile and nod easy !

[NoshowJones]

16 hours ago, The manic said:

This is true but it might be disappointingly low and force them to work longer. When people haggle here it should be with humour and haggling is never an excuse to be rude to a vendor.

Unless you are 100% sure that he/she is deliberately trying to rip you off.