Impossible! Or at least it has been so in my experience because when bargaining in Vietnam, getting ripped off is only a secondary concern to the risk of getting yelled at. Learning this has been somewhat difficult for me, coming from a country where items are sold with fixed prices and the general rule is that the customer is #1, but after a few colorful experiences myself, I have learned a couple of key rules to lessen both the risk of getting yelled at and ripped off.
- When it comes to bargaining in Vietnam, the most important thing to understand is that Vietnamese people are highly superstitious and Vietnamese sellers are even more so. Because this is a predominantly Buddhist country, fears about bad spirits, omens, and bad luck dominate Vietnamese thought and highly influences how people conduct themselves. We have all seen the altars bearing fruit offerings in Vietnamese stores back home, but in Vietnam, Vietnamese shopkeepers go a step further. I will explain.
If you ever get a chance to walk around Saigon’s biggest fabric district (Dong Khanh area in Chinatown), take careful notice of plastic bags full of fabric and paper pieces thrown into the street in front of shops. To anyone else, these plastic bags are simply bags of trash that are customary sights in the streets of Saigon. But no, these fabric pieces are cut from the desired fabric of customers who came in, bargained on this specific fabric, and ended up not buying it. What shopkeepers will then do is burn these fabric pieces/ paper and pray to spirits to bring bad luck on the customer. Sounds off, right? I know, but Vietnamese people really believe this stuff, so much so that customers are willing to bend their backs to sometimes purchase items they don’t really want just to avoid this.
So, how then does this translate into bargaining?
Rule #1: Avoid bargaining in the morning. In fact, don’t even go out to buy stuff in the morning, unless it is to purchase fresh food. This is because Vietnamese sellers believe that if they have to haggle with customers in the morning, they will have a bad luck with sales for the rest of the day. If you do go in the early morning, you will surely get more than a few grumpy faces and get cursed out by sellers. For example, on an early morning bus ride headed to the countryside, my mom and I witnessed an old woman get cursed out by a young bread seller for attempting to haggle. The bread seller cursed the old woman for bringing bad luck to her sales and continued to curse even as the old woman quickly handed over her money. It was ridiculous, but this is just an accepted fact in Vietnam.
When I went shopping with my aunt (again, on an early morning) in Saigon’s famous An Dong market, my aunt bought underwear she didn’t want from this one stall out of fear that they would not only yell at her, but get the other stalls to join in and jump us. On hearing this, Tammy and I thought, “Paranoid much?” but then we asked the rest of our family and they just shrugged their shoulders and were all, “Yeah, that happens.” When I was in at a market in Hue, word was going around that a woman had her pants pulled down by a shopkeeper after giving the shopkeeper a hard time by haggling too low. What the heck, right? But, I guess that’s just the way it is. I guess.
Also, the later you go in the day, the better deals you will get. By the end of the day, sellers just want to get rid of stuff and are much more flexible with the asking price. You will get even better prices if it is raining outside.
Rule #2: Forget the whole “the customer is #1” mantra we are taught in the U.S. Back home (generally) even if browse through the whole store and don’t purchase anything, you aren’t given any attitude. Here, however, if you just simply browse and touch an item without buying it, you are given a LOT of attitude. Most likely, you will leave the store/stall with a grumpy face staring you down. If you attempt to bargain, you will certainly get attitude. First comes the incredulous look from the sellers, their “what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you-for-even-suggesting-that-price” face. If you are persistent with your haggling, their pissed off look and tone of voice just gets even more rude that even when you have bargained the item down to a reasonable price, you no longer feel like buying it from them because they give you so much attitude.
This has been the most difficult part of bargaining for me to get used to. The moment I sense a bit of attitude, I just want to leave. The best way to handle this is to not argue and just leave if the attitude really gets on your nerves. It really isn’t worth causing a ruckus over because the shopkeeper WILL get the support of the other sellers in the market. And when it reaches that point, you have no idea what can happen.
Rule #3: Try to bargain for 50% of the asking price. The shopkeeper will immediately say no, but if you are persistent and try to talk the shopkeeper into it, you might be able to get away with it. This is how you should approach it. Ask for 50%, then say that you’re considering buying more than one item if they’re willing to bargain with you. They will say no, that business is slow, and your sort of bargaining is only hurting their business. This is when you start walking away. 60% of time, the moment you turn your back, you will get called back by the shopkeeper who is suddenly more than willing to bargain.
Be aware that whatever price they ask of you and whatever price you end up buying, even if it is 50%, even 40% of the asking price, the seller is still making a profit.
Rule #4: Don’t express too much interest in the item you want to buy. When shopkeepers know that you really like an item, they are less willing to bargain because they know that you are willing to pay a bit more for it. What I have learned is that when you really like something, pretend that you’re kind of indifferent to it. Even better, criticize it. For example, there’s a decorated jewelry box you really, really like. It’s hand-painted, with intricate details made out of eggshell pieces. It’s gorgeous and you really want it. Instead of going, “OMG, this is so gorgeous. Look at the craftsmanship on this piece,” you should say, “It’s pretty, but the quality of the paint is not that great and will definitely flake off in short time… There’s also a small scratch right here. See? Right here. You have to look closely to see it…Are you really sure it’s out of wood because it feels fake to me.” Find all the faults you can in the item. If you can’t find any, make some up. Then say, “Because of these faults, I’m only willing to buy it for ___ price. Take it or leave it.” If you did a good job in criticizing their merchandise, there’s a good chance you will walk away with a good deal.
Rule #5: Don’t be a foreigner. Sorry, but the truth is that no matter how good you think your bargaining skills are, if you are a foreigner (i.e. not Vietnamese), you will get ripped off. When you ask a shopkeeper for the price of an item, there are two prices—one reserved for Vietnamese and the other one for foreigners. Often, the asking price for foreigners is twice the amount asked of Vietnamese. Shopkeepers even admit it themselves. This one time, I asked for the price of this purse I sorta liked and was told that it cost 1 million Vietnamese dong ($50)—a ridiculous price for Vietnamese standards. Even though I asked them in Vietnamese, they knew I wasn’t from around these parts so they just made up the highest price that came to mind. If possible, go with a Vietnamese local to buy stuff.
Rule #6: The biggest pitfall of haggling in Vietnam is converting all the prices into American dollars. DON’T DO THIS. In the beginning, everything seemed so cheap because I kept converting it to USD. “Wow…100,000 dong? That’s only 5 bucks. How can I not buy it?” Then, I go somewhere else and find out that I could get the same thing for 60,000 dong and I end up feeling a bit cheated. Yes, things in Vietnam are cheap when converted to USD, but just because it is cheap doesn’t mean that you are not getting ripped off.
Follow these bargaining rules in Vietnam and you will maybe, just maybe get away with good deals and not get yelled at by grumpy sellers. Of course, it is always smart to assess the situation before you begin bargaining—the seller’s attitude toward you, the type of market, the time of day, etc. Do so at your own risk…I’m serious!
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