By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Haggling at the food market. Do's and don'ts
Can anyone recommend the best approach in getting those carrots at a reasonable price?
Obviously the white monkey with zero language skills approach does nothing good to the price. How do you get about getting your groceries at normal price or even negotiating a discount? Some of those women at the market are difficult to deal with.
10 years 40 weeks ago in Money & Banking - China
Tip One: Find out from a Chinese source (friend, companion, colleague) how much they would expect to pay. Offer a lower price and, if that doesn't work, go up to the price the locals told you it should be. If the seller does not budge, yell "tai gui le" then walk away at a brisk pace. Incidentally, for anybody wanting to brush up their verbal Chinese skills, haggling is a really good method. Try haggling for things you don't really want to buy and see how low you can actually get the price. Sometimes it is very surprising and it is great watching the vendor's face when they realize that a foreigner is getting one over on them. You don't even have to feel any embarrassment about it. Just remember they wouldn't have any scruples ripping you off given half the chance.
Hulk:
This is precisely how I did it.
My wife was the go-to girl for vegetable prices. After purchasing them with her, they started giving me the correct price. Do be careful with some super-shiny vegetables; they've probably been waxed.
Firstly any woman is difficult to deal with even without money
Secondly tread carefully as you do not want to upset somebody who handles your food
thirdly do not eat Bananas while trying to bargain
I like to shop in the big market down town Guilin, strange place, looked like a store front but it went on and on inside, think it was once a couple of streets that now has a roof. My GF told me that I do not have to haggle, they always give me fair price there,, well most did.
Watch what others pay or get someone to shop with you until you know the prices.
I like to sneak by and let the chickens out of the cages, ya gotta have some fun.
It's "go about getting' not get about getting. Aren't those fruits and vegetables set at a fixed price? Where I'm at they have a scale that will determine how much the vegetables and fruits will cost you. (!
He he, I said: 'scale'!