Sketches From Life in Lahore (Posted by: A.)

[elephantkitty]

i. HagglingOne challenge for many Westerners of living in the sub continent is adjusting to different cultural practices around paying for things. Back at home, there are posted prices that are nonnegotiable for almost anything under the sun, save, perhaps, your car and house. Go to the grocery store, and bananas are a dollar a pound... doesn't

Comments

[la_chispa]

I'm at the taxi/truck/bus stand outside the market in a two-horse town in Guatemala, weighed down with fruit for 50 that I have to cart back to a meeting I've been helping out with at the convent at the other end of town. I can see my goal, but I certainly can't lug all my bags there there.

I approach the vehicles and explain the situation. The first guy gives me the up and down and quotes me a price that would get me halfway back to Guatemala City. "You've got to be shitting me, dude," I say.

He laughs and grabs two of the bags at my feet, tossing them into the bed of his pick-up as he says, "For you, free."

I tipped him anyway, of course.

Best haggling I've ever done.

[elephantkitty]

awesome!!

[missruckus]

thanks for posting this thing on haggling! i feel the same way/experienced the same. i still hate having to haggle though cuz i suck at it.. but when i watch people (locals, like my aunt) in action, it is quite interesting.

[elephantkitty]

I'm not very good at it either. And sometimes forego it, but not am as uncomfortable as I used to be. I think some of it is just random personality -- my Indian cousin who spent her whole life in Delhi doesn't like it isn't great at haggling (though her mother is). Then, we had this (hetero) couple visit from the USA... the guy grew up in the US (of like turkish & white heritage) and was awesome at it. He would make people laugh by making such great jokes, and by the end he would get a decent deal and leave the shopkeepers smiling.