In the last week I have spent a good amount of time shopping. Janu, a close family friend who is also my age, took me out first. She is going to the U.S. for grad school next month and has been kind enough to let me tag along on her shopping outings when I am looking for something to do. With her, with family and on my own I have been to a wide variety of shoe and suitcase stores, trinket shops on the street, large market bazaars and malls.
One striking similarity was most of the branded/designer stores I went into with Janu played all American music. The strange part was the song selection. In one upscale women's shoe store I heard unedited 50 Cent tracks followed by Sean Paul, except instead of Sean Paul's voice it was some kind of Chipmunk-singing version of his song playing at double speed. But once I got inside GVK One, Hyderabad's most upscale mall, there was a markedly different atmosphere. Although malls here are only about 50,000 to 100,000 square feet (versus Lloyd Center near my house in Portland which is 1.4 million) this one was picture perfect. The place smelled expensive, was expensive and everyone inside was dressed expensively.
I have come to experience how every venue here is catering to a very different crowd, hence the different approaches. The Adidas store Janu and I hit on the street had more employees, different music and different prices than the Adidas store inside GVK One mall. And the guy peddling Adidas knock-offs on the street starts at about half the designer store sticker price and can be bartered down to 10% of that.
The art of bartering is definitely the most interesting part of shopping in India; something that has nearly been phased out of the U.S. market entirely. The malls and large stores here do have set prices but the street bazaars, vendors and auto drivers are all open for negotiation. And when I say open for negotiation I mean you either play the game or you go around paying triple for everything.
While shopping with my cousins at a large arts, crafts and clothing bazaar (Shilparamam) I watched Seema get the price of sandals dropped from 250 Rupees to 100. Granted a 60% price reduction can't be achieved in many situations, but in this one it was.
First guideline to successful bartering is to be a local. Obviously I fail at that so thankfully I have my family to help me out by buying things for me while I hide around the corner.
Second guideline is not to need anything (and if you do, be sure nobody knows it). It's all about your state of mind. For example, in the states I almost never walk 5 miles. If I didn't have a car or bike to use I would find a bus or the metro. But here I have all the time in the world, I'm young and healthy and the weather is always fantastic. Why not walk? I always have the option to grab an auto anywhere if I'm tired but if they ask for too much or give me the "broken meter" routine, walking isn't going to kill me. Only with this mindset written on your face do the prices start falling and the meters start working.
The third guideline: The first person to cave on their original price loses big.
Example: You go to buy a hot dog in the states and the vendor says $10. Obviously ridiculous and you know he won't sell any at that price. You say $2 which is much closer to the going rate and he should probably come down to $8 without much of a fight. When this happens he loses all credibility, looks confused and as long as you keep hammering away at $2 he'll most likely come all the way down to you.
Initiating the compromise is admitting you are overly greedy and/or naive. At this point whoever is looking to compromise admits they are more desperate to make the transaction. This has been tougher for me so far because I was genuinely naive about how much things should truly cost here. But after about a 3 week grace period of idiocy I decided to dust off the economics degree sitting in the back corner of my brain and step up to the plate. I have time, energy and now some idea of the reasonable prices. Everyone I'm dealing with has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 fierce competitors standing on the same street. Assuming no collusion on their end and/or stupidity on mine, I should come out a winner.
One striking similarity was most of the branded/designer stores I went into with Janu played all American music. The strange part was the song selection. In one upscale women's shoe store I heard unedited 50 Cent tracks followed by Sean Paul, except instead of Sean Paul's voice it was some kind of Chipmunk-singing version of his song playing at double speed. But once I got inside GVK One, Hyderabad's most upscale mall, there was a markedly different atmosphere. Although malls here are only about 50,000 to 100,000 square feet (versus Lloyd Center near my house in Portland which is 1.4 million) this one was picture perfect. The place smelled expensive, was expensive and everyone inside was dressed expensively.
I have come to experience how every venue here is catering to a very different crowd, hence the different approaches. The Adidas store Janu and I hit on the street had more employees, different music and different prices than the Adidas store inside GVK One mall. And the guy peddling Adidas knock-offs on the street starts at about half the designer store sticker price and can be bartered down to 10% of that.
The art of bartering is definitely the most interesting part of shopping in India; something that has nearly been phased out of the U.S. market entirely. The malls and large stores here do have set prices but the street bazaars, vendors and auto drivers are all open for negotiation. And when I say open for negotiation I mean you either play the game or you go around paying triple for everything.
While shopping with my cousins at a large arts, crafts and clothing bazaar (Shilparamam) I watched Seema get the price of sandals dropped from 250 Rupees to 100. Granted a 60% price reduction can't be achieved in many situations, but in this one it was.
First guideline to successful bartering is to be a local. Obviously I fail at that so thankfully I have my family to help me out by buying things for me while I hide around the corner.
Second guideline is not to need anything (and if you do, be sure nobody knows it). It's all about your state of mind. For example, in the states I almost never walk 5 miles. If I didn't have a car or bike to use I would find a bus or the metro. But here I have all the time in the world, I'm young and healthy and the weather is always fantastic. Why not walk? I always have the option to grab an auto anywhere if I'm tired but if they ask for too much or give me the "broken meter" routine, walking isn't going to kill me. Only with this mindset written on your face do the prices start falling and the meters start working.
The third guideline: The first person to cave on their original price loses big.
Example: You go to buy a hot dog in the states and the vendor says $10. Obviously ridiculous and you know he won't sell any at that price. You say $2 which is much closer to the going rate and he should probably come down to $8 without much of a fight. When this happens he loses all credibility, looks confused and as long as you keep hammering away at $2 he'll most likely come all the way down to you.
Initiating the compromise is admitting you are overly greedy and/or naive. At this point whoever is looking to compromise admits they are more desperate to make the transaction. This has been tougher for me so far because I was genuinely naive about how much things should truly cost here. But after about a 3 week grace period of idiocy I decided to dust off the economics degree sitting in the back corner of my brain and step up to the plate. I have time, energy and now some idea of the reasonable prices. Everyone I'm dealing with has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 fierce competitors standing on the same street. Assuming no collusion on their end and/or stupidity on mine, I should come out a winner.
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