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September 06, 2004

Shopping in India

Rule #1 Every price is negotiable.
Rule #2 Bargaining is mandatory.

There is no such thing as simply going inside a shop, buying an item and leaving. Every acquisition is painfully long and demands skills that I obviously lacked but during these weeks in India I had excellent training.

Favourite lines:

"You are such a beautiful lady, you need a beautiful saree!"

"My daughter! Can I call you my daughter? Look at the quality of the weaving on this carpet!"

"God gives me the opportunity to give you a 30% discount!"

"With this pashmina shawl you'll look like Miss India!"

"You want a 25% discount?!?! Look at this! It's so cheap for you! You come from Europe!"

"Don't walk here at night; it's not safe to go any further than my shop."

"You have such a sweet face and this colour looks so good on you; I'll give you a 5% discount"

"This is for your mother? I have a mother too and because I have a soft heart, I'll give you a 10% discount"

Fun ads and signs in India. Another Photoalbum here.

Posted by claudia

Comments

these guys seems to be born with natural rhetoric capabilities, in a sense of persuasion through words. i experienced the same things in eygpt. same habits, different cultures, but there's one thing in common: poverty. or at lease we think they are poor. in the end, it doesn't matter anyway...

Posted by english at September 7, 2004 09:27 AM

The art of bargaining - it should leave both the seller and the buyer thinking that they've done a good deal! Oh no. Your link to your photoalbum had the misfortune to meet the criteria for my ad-blocker, and I had to turn it off to see the photos!

Posted by alkam at September 9, 2004 08:10 AM