Market Dance
The art of bartering with the wily merchants (mostly women) at the local markets is a skill that a visitor to China is well-advised to pick up and hone as rapidly as possible. At first the process is a little intimidating, but with observation and practice, one can quickly adapt and even come to quite enjoy it, as I did on my recent trip to Shanghai.
Typically the exchange goes something like this:
Me (pointing to object): How much?
Vendor: Oh for you, very special price.
She then reaches for the omnipresent calculator, punches in a number that only an utter fool (or U.N. procurement specialist) would pay, and smiling passes it to me.
I glance at the figure, smile, shake my head knowingly, input an offer than makes what the Indians got for Manhattan seem generous, and return the calculator.
Now the real drama (and fun) begins. She looks at the cipherin' machine and reacts by wailing as if I had just ripped her first (and in China usually only) born offspring from her cradling arms.
"No, no, no. This good quality. This good price. I give you discount."
She taps in a new, slightly lower number and returns the calculator to me. I glance around, throw my arms out in exasperation, and do my best to pretend to be offended that she would dare try to gouge me with such an insulting price. I raise my offer ever so slightly
We go back in forth in this manner for a few more rounds until we she hits the price that I had originally set as my buying point and we have a deal. Or we can't come to agreement and I walk away. At which point she pursues me, grabs me by my arm, and leads me back to the booth to hear her new "final offer." If you want to have any success in these negotiations at all, you must have the will to break off talks and leave the table if you're not making progress. As Kenny Rogers famously advised, you need to know when to walk away and when to run.
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