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I came back in France after being used to negotiate for everything in China (even entrance to clubs). I failed miserably. There are definitely cultures where pe

by baby 5y ago

I came back in France after being used to negotiate for everything in China (even entrance to clubs). I failed miserably. There are definitely cultures where people would lose money rather than negotiate, it’s just badly seen.

kqr 5y ago
I think it depends on how you approach it. I find people who aren't used to negotiation are the easiest to negotiate with because they get uncomfortable and want to find a workable solution as quickly as possible.
nicolas_t 5y ago
As a kid and later a student in France, I had a lot of success haggling in computer stores to lower the price even with an online store LDLC (but that was around 2001?) so I'd say haggling di work at least for a while. I have lived abroad since (including China where I used my negotiating skills a lot :) ) so I'm not sure how it is nowadays.
tokamak-teapot 5y ago
If you allow one person to haggle, everyone hears about this and haggles. It might be theoretically 'losing money' but really it's avoiding entering a situation where there's such downward pressure on your sale prices that you can't survive.
mijoharas 5y ago
Hahaha! I remember when I was in China (and learning some Mandarin), one of the first phrases we learnt was "your calculator must be broken" because in any of the markets people would type numbers into a calculator to show you a price. Saying that in Chinese with a laugh definitely saved a fair few yuan over time (it didn't hurt that they were surprised enough at a westerner speaking Chinese that it got a bit cheaper anyways).
- nicolas_t 5y ago
  Ha! Yup, I used that, the other trick is to learn the local dialect (Shanghainese in my case) and ask for it to be cheaper in the local dialect. That only really worked though 18 years ago when a bigger percentage of people spoke Shanghainese in Shanghai
  - mijoharas 5y ago
    Hahaha! This was actually in Shanghai that I learnt this first! (Though hadn't picked up on the shanghainese trick, which sounds very smart)
- baby 5y ago
  I would go back and forth between vendors who were selling the same thing, and try to lower the last price I got. At some point you'd reach some sort of floor where nobody would bulge. You'd really know you made a deal if the vendor would be upset at you even though you were buying, and you knew you got ripped off if the vendor had a huge smile and made conversation after you bought.

by baby 5y ago

kqr 5y ago

I think it depends on how you approach it. I find people who aren't used to negotiation are the easiest to negotiate with because they get uncomfortable and want to find a workable solution as quickly as possible.

nicolas_t 5y ago

As a kid and later a student in France, I had a lot of success haggling in computer stores to lower the price even with an online store LDLC (but that was around 2001?) so I'd say haggling di work at least for a while. I have lived abroad since (including China where I used my negotiating skills a lot :) ) so I'm not sure how it is nowadays.

tokamak-teapot 5y ago

If you allow one person to haggle, everyone hears about this and haggles. It might be theoretically 'losing money' but really it's avoiding entering a situation where there's such downward pressure on your sale prices that you can't survive.

mijoharas 5y ago

Hahaha! I remember when I was in China (and learning some Mandarin), one of the first phrases we learnt was "your calculator must be broken" because in any of the markets people would type numbers into a calculator to show you a price. Saying that in Chinese with a laugh definitely saved a fair few yuan over time (it didn't hurt that they were surprised enough at a westerner speaking Chinese that it got a bit cheaper anyways).

nicolas_t 5y ago
Ha! Yup, I used that, the other trick is to learn the local dialect (Shanghainese in my case) and ask for it to be cheaper in the local dialect. That only really worked though 18 years ago when a bigger percentage of people spoke Shanghainese in Shanghai
- mijoharas 5y ago
  Hahaha! This was actually in Shanghai that I learnt this first! (Though hadn't picked up on the shanghainese trick, which sounds very smart)
baby 5y ago
I would go back and forth between vendors who were selling the same thing, and try to lower the last price I got. At some point you'd reach some sort of floor where nobody would bulge. You'd really know you made a deal if the vendor would be upset at you even though you were buying, and you knew you got ripped off if the vendor had a huge smile and made conversation after you bought.