Brunu S. Wengrowski, former professor of Contract Management for the Defense Acquisition University suggests, “To prepare properly [for bargaining in a different culture], the negotiator must have an awareness of how information is assimilated, history, concept of time, customs and practices, behavioral taboos, and geography of the given country.” I wonder if we, particularly as locals, subconsciously take the above factors into account when we negotiate basic amenities on a daily basis.
And, yet, after each successful or unsuccessful bargaining venture (I once foolishly paid Rs.300 for chappals in Pokhara though I’d walked away with a deal because he’d started at Rs.500) I wonder why we perpetuate it. Wouldn’t the drivers like a set rate? Perhaps the meter which is so conveniently fixed into the vehicle to indicate approved rate per distance? For that matter, wouldn’t shopkeepers like to do the same? Couldn’t they calculate, budget and plan more efficiently this way?
If taxis weren’t enough, even buses and micros aren’t spared these days. Either the fare really is ridiculous or passengers aren’t aware of the almost-monthly increase. Everyday one passenger looks at another’s brash exchange of words with the conductor that sometimes cross points on the fare and enter territories regarding one’s education, class, travel, etc. Why micros and buses just don’t stick the fare on the most visible portion of the vehicle, I don’t know. It would save conductors, passengers and drivers the headache.
Thank goodness for restaurants, where the price is on the menu (but the service charge and VAT usually and annoying excluded, if written in small print at the bottom). There is no bargaining the final bill.
An Austrian friend visiting Nepal was horrified at all the haggling he was expected to do while souvenir-shopping in Thamel and asked why Nepalis just didn’t use a fixed and fair rate. I had no good answer except to explain that even when shopping in Kathmandu’s mushrooming (but, empty) malls where placards declare “fixed price” on the counter, a 15 percent discount is demanded by patrons and promptly offered by owners for no reason. That or my mom will still bargain our way for (another) 15 percent off. Momentarily embarrassed to be her accomplice if I protest she makes a valid point, “They’d never accept a rate that didn’t cut market price or leave them better off with the exchange.”
If taxis weren’t enough, even buses and micros aren’t spared these days. Either the fare really is ridiculous or passengers aren’t aware of the almost-monthly increase. Everyday one passenger looks at another’s brash exchange of words with the conductor that sometimes cross points on the fare and enter territories regarding one’s education, class, travel, etc.
One of the first lessons when studying International Trade in Economics was the same thing. When we purchase a pair of jeans, as the customer we value the jeans more than say Rs.1000, whereas the retailer values Rs.1000 more than the jeans. Neither gives in out of the kindness of their heart. This explains why shopkeepers eventually give in to my mom with a rate she’s stated – they’re charging more than they expect to earn.
Which takes me to my next point – why is declaring such openly exorbitant rates the norm in places like Nepal when a reasonable rate would excuse all from haggling and hassling? India, China and Tunisia are just to name a few where it’s the same. In fact there are articles published by experienced travelers and businesspeople that offer advice on how to bargain in such countries. According to responsible-travel.org bargaining is bracketed a cultural phenomenon that is advised to be conducted “in the spirit of the situation, not as a means of competition.”
Wengrowski banks on the argument that North Americans and Europeans think in a linear fashion, while the rest of the world does so in a circular manner – suggesting that Westerners cut straight to the point while the rest of us make small talk, perform mini-rituals and go round about to arrive at the same conclusion (or price, in this instance).
Perhaps it’s an expert means of irregularly regulating market discrimination –profiting from some in order to let others slide by and still maintain a balanced sheet. Maybe it’s fair in an unfair way. This Third Degree Price Discrimination is at works in Nepal where the price change has little or no connection to the actual cost of product or service and simply hinges on the consumers’ willingness and ability to pay, rather, to bargain.
A 2005 Danish study of Trade Unions and industrial legal cases seems to suggest that in resorting to the legally correct, rather than the consensus-based solution to a dispute may actually be less advantageous for both parties as the solution leans towards a zero-sum scenario. Is there a win-win to bargaining that there isn’t to a fixed pricing (assuming it is a perfect market with equal information for all)?
As a Facebook friend credited the bargaining skills she had acquired while hunting for bargains at Sarojini market in Delhi to her expert negotiating with scalpers for Adele concert tickets in Philadelphia, maybe sometimes going in circles gets you straight to the point after all.
sradda.thapa@gmail.com
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