24 Things Indians Love : No. 22 - Bargaining

Now this is a definite fact that if you don’t haggle or bargain in India, it is highly likely that you will end paying more than the stuff is worth. This is because vendors expect a bit of haggling and state their prices higher than what they expect to receive.

Bargaining is actually in blood of India and it is not regarded as a lowly deed here. Even the Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia, credited the bargaining skills he learned in local vegetable markets for getting Microsoft to push its acquisition price for his company from $160 million to $400 million.

There may be times when you get around 70% off than the originally stated price!!

If the price is not labeled, don’t buy till you get atleast 30% off. And if you want to get a still better deal, just throw in a lot of “IT’S TOO HIGH” in your conversation. Indians are always ready to leave the shop (even when they desperately want to buy the stuff) – just to show that they are not interested and can get a much better deal in neighboring shops.

And if you see that the salesman in the shop is smiling, when you are leaving – then its obvious who has won the deal…

The list of “24 things Indians love” continues –

No. 24 – Eating with hands

No. 23 – Mahatma Gandhi

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