Adventures in China

Bargaining is a pain. Sure, some days it's kind of fun to see how low you can get the price, but then there are days when you're tired of bargaining the price of each vegetable individually. Of course, I also suffer from rich white American guilt, (That's the, "why am I arguing about 2.4 cents?" issue) which makes bargaining less fun.

However, I made it a point to always bargain when I went shopping. Sometimes, bargaining is fun, especially if you know enough Chinese to banter a little about your job or your family. More importantly, bargaining is a way of life in China. It is used to even out the economic playing field, a little. It is simply expected that those with more money will pay a more for items. If a foreigner simply accepts the first price offered to them, they will pay more than even the seller expected to get and they will perpetuate the myth that all foreigners are rich. The perpetuation of this myth means that prices will rise even higher for foreigners.

Bargaining is present in some shops, but not in others. You cannot bargain at upscale stores, supermarkets, or most restaurants, but you can bargain just about anything else including taxi fares (before the trip) and street food. Price fixing is slowly spreading with the increase in chain stores, but this does not threaten the existence of free markets or bargaining in the corner store.

It takes a while to figure out what is acceptable to bargain and it probably changes from city to city. In Luoyang, you do not bargain the price of prepackaged food, but you can bargain for street food. Even if department stores have sticker prices, you may be able to bargain, though this is rare. And while you can usually bargain with street vendors, they will not bargain if there is an agreed local price fix. For example, in Luoyang, all ice cream bars are one yuan and that is just the way it is.

If you are obviously foreign, you will have trouble bargaining. Foreigners are expected to be rich and will often be charged many times the price a Chinese person would pay. Even saying that you live and work in China will not get you anywhere near the regular price. Some foreigners become expert bargainers, but that takes a lot of skill and practice. For many people visiting China, it is their first time bargaining and it is against people who bargain for a living. It is always helpful to wander around a department store or friendship store to see what sticker prices would be before trying to bargain on the street.

How to bargain? It depends on the person. The most effective Chinese bargainers never act disappointed or angry when talking about price, the just smile. Smile and smile and smile. You will not get anywhere if you just get upset about the price. If you don't like how the seller is treating you, you should walk away and find someone else. The best bargainers do not act interested in the thing they are bargaining for. They often look up the street while bargaining, set the item down, or start inching towards the exit.

When bargaining for an item, have a price set in your head that is acceptable. This, of course, takes practice. You could visit department stores to get an idea of regular prices for the items you want, or watch Chinese people bargain and see what prices they get. Most Chinese people will pay around half of the original offered price, but the initial offered price to Chinese is much lower than to foreigners.

If you know enough Chinese to bargain in it, then do it. You will always get a better price if you bargain in Chinese than in English. If you don't know Chinese, you can bargain by writing prices on a piece of paper. Bargaining is a long process of each party offering prices until you reach an agreement. If the seller won't come down to your goal, walk away. Often times a seller will call after you and you can begin bargaining again.