You read it all the time: You have to barter in order to get a fair deal in a lot of environments in this country and yes, it is definitely true. However, this can prove to be tricky if you don't really have any idea of what the item in question is worth to you.
I remember when I first got here just over a year ago. I think about some of those situations where i was bartering and I cringe a little bit because I thought I was playing the game and well, I was doing it wrong and perhaps a bit too aggressively.
There is a fine line between "bartering" and "bullying" and also just being an asshole. I didn't mean to be the last thing when i first got here, but it definitely happened not because I am an asshole, but because I didn't know WTF i was doing.
When someone would approach me with the calculator about the price on some particular item i would immediately type something absurd back into it. I remember looking at a ring which they claimed was made of silver (i wouldn't know how to determine if that was the case or not) but the woman typed something like 900 baht ($30) into it. I handed it back with 150 Baht ($5) on the machine. Her friendliness disappeared and then she spoke her first English to me when she said "There is NOTHING in my store that is this price!"
And I left.
Therein lies the problem. I have no idea what a ring is worth and honestly I didn't need or ever terribly want the ring in question. I was just wandering and spending money. If you don't know what something is worth to you, you have a really good chance of making an ass of yourself.
The tourist areas definitely have inflated prices and this can be for a number of reasons
- Many tourists don't barter at all
- Most tourists (like me) don't know what said item is actually worth
- There are factors such as increased rent on the stall / shop that the item you are looking at that factors into the price of everything in the shop
Are they taking advantage of you? Well, some of them certainly are but it is folly to assume that everyone is going to do that just because of a story or two on the internet.
The other day I was in a market that has a decent number of tourists and I saw this sign. I immediately felt compelled to shop there and I did end up buying a hat which was marked already at a really low price. I found that as a result of this shop policy that the staff members were actually considerably more friendly than the other stalls that DID barter. And their shop was considerably busier than the others as well.
To be honest I don't really like the who negotiation and would prefer if people just marked the prices and that is what the price is. With the increased popularity of giant shopping centers that are similar to Wal-Mart I feel as though the locals kind of feel the same way. Shopping shouldn't be stressful and for me anyway, the bartering system always gets me a bit on edge and I would rather avoid it.