To the OP, what youre running up against and getting abraded by, is the intrinsic merchant culture where prices are bargained for and numerous local shops all have the same goods: don't yank their chain unless you're really going to bargain in earnest, and then BUY the item from them. Elswe youre just wasting their time.

They fairly assume (cuz they see it every day) youre a buyer who is doing a run of all the shops to find the lowest number and then start haggling with that one - and so their chances of gaining a profitable sale reduce to zero. You are, in fact, wasting their time and getting the brunt of their honest response, to wit, "don't waste my time."

The first shop owner was spot-on in saying he'd tell you the price when youre ready to buy, as the prices change on the open market like for any commodity - by the law of supply and demand. HIgh season = higher prices, etc. Were I him, and you walked in and asked 'how much, and BTW, I'm not buying today,' I'd have said something in Thai like 'your mother' and gone back to my bad Thai soap opera.

In case you forgot, Rob got mad because they showed him the price on a calculator instead of speaking it. Wrong. I never get mad when this happens. I dislike this process and refuse to look at the calculator.

Later, he deliberately provoked them. "Them"? You mean "they" were suddenly now all grouped together in one place? I pointed out to one vendor that his price was three times higher than the guy up the road . . . highly provocative.

Then he made it clear he didn't like them because of their ethnicity. Wrong again. I pointed out that I had no idea what their ethnicity might be, except that they weren't Thai.

Yet you still believe it's the vendors' fault in the absence of any evidence other than Rob's say-so. You yourself have based your every comment solely on Rob's say-so, right from the start!

Nothing I write would convince you, you have already made up your mind. If so then he's not the only one.

To the OP, what youre running up against and getting abraded by, is the intrinsic merchant culture where prices are bargained for and numerous local shops all have the same goods: don't yank their chain unless you're really going to bargain in earnest, and then BUY the item from them. Elswe youre just wasting their time.

They fairly assume (cuz they see it every day) youre a buyer who is doing a run of all the shops to find the lowest number and then start haggling with that one - and so their chances of gaining a profitable sale reduce to zero. You are, in fact, wasting their time and getting the brunt of their honest response, to wit, "don't waste my time."

The first shop owner was spot-on in saying he'd tell you the price when youre ready to buy, as the prices change on the open market like for any commodity - by the law of supply and demand. HIgh season = higher prices, etc. Were I him, and you walked in and asked 'how much, and BTW, I'm not buying today,' I'd have said something in Thai like 'your mother' and gone back to my bad Thai soap opera.

Erm . . . which sort of emphasises my original point that these people are not interested in making any effort to actually sell their goods.

If everyday they see shoppers who are doing a run to find the best prices then this is perfectly normal for them and their success depends upon attracting these people. Anyone with some sales training/awareness would understand that it is in their own interest to appear pleasant and respond with a good price. The only possible reason why they wouldn't do this is that they know their prices are too high and browsers don't come back. Being rude and dismissive is a guarantee that browsers won't come back - it would have actually taken less effort to have said "Five thousand baht" before sitting down to watch TV.

Interesting to note that out of the five people I approached the only one who was pleasant and accommodating throughout was the one with the most realistic price . . . there's a ludicrous difference between 2,000B and 6,000B for the same item. Is anyone here actually suggesting that I should have gone for the 6,000 baht offering?

R

Been following this with a bit of interest,

But personally my feeling is that if stores of any kind cannot be bothered to visible price their stock, I just don't bother dealing with them... I am sure that goes for a lot of people.

Instead of sitting on their buts watching the telly they should price the merchandise.... what ever the product be and who ever is running the store......

Could you imagine if Tesco, Big C 7 -11 etc, did not price stuff....

Storm in a tea cup.