How to Bargain in Běijīng
Supposing that they ask thirty dollars for a thing, we offer fifteen, which at first will be indignantly rejected; but after perhaps three months of bargaining the man will come down to our price, thus keeping himself for three months out of the interest of his money.
Algernon B. Freeman-Mitford, The Attaché at Peking, London 1900
This was one of Freeman-Mitford’s more gormless pronouncements, and yet it’s one regularly reproduced in guide books, travel articles, and transmitted via word of mouth to this day: Offer a third of the first asking price and expect to end up paying half.
If such a rule existed it would be exactly the same as fixing prices to start with. But bargaining is a dynamic process that will produce different results for different people buying the same item, and different results for the same people buying the same item on different days.
The fool here was Freeman-Mitford, whose determination to pay half left him paying many times what he needed to.
Modern traders have learned from experience that that’s how foreigners think. So those dealing frequently with foreigners commonly ask ten, fifteen, or twenty times what they would actually be willing to accept. In the future it may become 20, 30, or 50 times. When you go home smiling because you’ve paid half what a vendor asked, his scowl hides his pleasure at the five or ten times too much that he’s received.
Be very clear: There is no reliable information on what you ought to pay, and you are never being cheated. You are voluntarily deciding to compete for the first time in a sport and to have as your opponent a top-ranked professional.
It’s a sport in which knowledge is key, your opponent knows everything and you know very little indeed, and it’s a sport in which misrepresentation is an acknowledged part of the process. Whatever the result turns out to be you’ve only yourself to blame.
Make the most of the elements that are directly under your control: where you shop, when you shop, and whether you buy anything at all.
You should avoid shopping in the company of a guide. You should avoid shopping when in a tour group or while a tour group is present. You should avoid markets that are close to expat ghettos such as diplomatic compounds, clusters of five-star hotels, or that clearly target and are visited by large numbers of foreigners, and especially tour groups. You should shop away from the main entrance as prices there are usually higher.
Shop when there’s little traffic on a weekday rather than weekend and never on a public holiday. Go during office hours. Especially with any of the remaining partly outdoor markets, hope for a grey day.
Don’t show a strong interest in any one item, but scrutinise a number with an equal degree of attention and discussion of prices before eventually dealing with one in particular, and even then looking at two or more identical or very similar examples of what interests you. There is never only one of what you’re looking for, and never only one place selling that thing. So you should zhuàn (转), as the Chinese do — take a turn around the market discussing the same item at several stalls and moving on before you get anywhere close to reaching an agreement. Just walking away will almost always attract a lower price.
Never be impatient. Always be pleasant. Show polite incredulity at any price you’re told. Be entertaining and engage with the seller if he shows any willingness. Bargaining should always be good-humoured until the point at which you finally part with money as if it is the last penny you have in the world.
Bargain for immediate purchase. Don’t assume that if you obtain a certain offer you’re going to be able to obtain it again the next day. The vendor may have had a good day and not feel in need of the small margin down to which you’ve bargained her. There may be tour groups wandering around and she may not want to be seen parting with an item for a lower sum when there are others around likely to pay more.
The fight is won or lost at the point when the first price is mentioned. You can offer a price first, which you can be certain will be rejected, so you should make it far lower than what you would be prepared to pay. Indeed, what you feel prepared to pay at that point has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what you should pay. Your first price, whether you or the vendor speaks first, is designed to condition the vendor’s expectations. It’s a conversation opener. It should be a sum so low that you are embarrassed to offer it. There is no figure whatsoever that it is too low to offer. The lower it is the less you’ll end up paying.
The vendor’s first price also has no relation whatsoever to what you’ll eventually agree to pay. It looks like a piece of information, but it isn’t anything of the kind. Think it is and you’re being Freeman-Mitford. It’s a statement designed to make the final result of negotiations as high as possible, and to make a claim about the quality and authenticity of the item under discussion.
The vendor has nothing to lose by asking for an impossibly high figure. You’re visibly foreign (even if you’re a foreigner of Chinese descent) and by definition both rich and ignorant of real prices. He’s met foreigners who simply hand over whatever he first asks. There’s nothing to lose by asking you for ¥500 and everything to gain. If you smile and walk away an immediate drop to ¥300 makes it look as if he’s conceded a lot already, and so can’t be expected to go much lower. But that doesn’t mean your first offer should be, grudgingly, any more than ¥5, and your second any more than ¥6. If he absolutely refuses to say another word you can always go up. You can never go down.
Your key problem here has nothing specifically to do with China. It’s one that lies in your own brain — a problem known to psychologists as anchoring. When a figure is mentioned you cannot help but let it influence your assessment of what a fair price would be. You must fight against this effect. The reason for making an offer first is that it has the same effect on the expectations of the vendor, and he can’t help that either. But unlike you he has concrete information: the minimum price he needs to obtain to make a profit, how business has been going that day, and whether he has bills coming due.
The following information is entirely irrelevant:
What anyone you know resident in Běijīng has to say about it, and any price someone else suggests merely has the same anchoring effect. Furthermore, through word of mouth a price oft-repeated becomes the ‘right’ price simply through the growing number of people who paid it and want to feel comfortable that they paid no more than they had to. This leads others never to offer less, and is downright misleading as to what might have been paid
What a guide says about it. A kick-back awaits
What anyone you bump into who has bought the same item has to say about it. You may feel their price sets an upper limit, but it will also unnecessarily raise the price you’ll feel to be fair
Anything the vendor says. It isn’t Táng dynasty, it isn’t by a famous master, it isn’t unique or even rare, and it isn’t made of silver, gold, ivory, or jade. It isn’t real silk, and it isn’t a genuine Louis Vuitton. The label is also a fake.
Bargaining commonly ends with one person looking pleased and one looking pained. If you don’t look pained the vendor will think he could have got more out of you, and if he doesn’t look pained you know you might have paid less.
The price you pay isn’t the ‘right’ price. And when you meet someone who paid less, that isn’t the ‘right’ price either. But if you follow the advice given here, then you’ll get the best price you can.
See also Shopping in Practical A–Z, and main Shopping section.
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