Judging from listening to other people when shopping in markets abroad, I am surprised that many of them bargain very poorly.  Many of them, particularly cruise ship crowds, do not seem to even know that bargaining is an option.

Haggling is an art form.  I am used to it because it is the norm in the country where I am from, but I have had to alter my approach slightly for each country we go to.  Whether you are haggling in Malaysia, Turkey, or Jordan, the approach is similar but there are differences.

The chief difference between the different markets around the world is how much shop owners will generally come down.  In some countries, 20% is acceptable while in others 90% is common.  It is often tricky to determine exactly how much is acceptable where.  This is complicated by the fact that not all shop keepers price the same.  Some start their prices lower and do not go down very much, while others start very high.

The following are bargaining methods I have seen.

1) Put down the item itself.  The idea is to state that the item should be cheaper because it is not as good.  I do not agree with this approach as it often insults the shopkeeper.

2) State a lower price and bargain to there.  The problem is you have no idea what is acceptable to the shopkeeper.  If your price is way too low, the shopkeeper may be offended and won’t want to deal with you.  If you state a price too high, the shopkeeper will immediately accept and you will have paid too much.

3) Get the shopkeeper to keep lowering the price.  This is the approach I prefer, though it does not work uniformly in all places.  In this approach, you state that you are very interested in the item, and would like to buy it.  However, the price stated is too expensive.  In many countries, the shopkeeper will start lowering the price.  Play the game for a bit and pay attention to the price and what you think you might pay.

The shopkeeper of course wants to know your price and will keep pressing you for it, but your goal is to not give in.  At some point, the shopkeeper will stop lowering the price and at that point I often offer a price slightly below their lowest price.  Sometimes they disagree at which point I begin to walk away, at which point I most often get my price.  Often this price is lower than I was initially prepared to pay.

In some countries, shopkeepers will not lower their prices like this.  In this case, I try to find one who does and I use this purchase as a gauge for what prices should be in general.  For instance, in Turkey I discovered that shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar will take about half of the asking price.  I then used that knowledge to bargain with the shopkeepers who did not automatically reduce their prices.

Standard courtesy is to only bargain on items you actually intend to buy and do not insult the shopkeeper.

Haggling for a trinket in a foreign country is a lot different than bargaining in real estate, but I hope these tips have helped.