June 12, 2010

I Love Bargaining At Markets


I ate lunch and bought souvenirs when I got to Ben Thanh market. I always buy a T-shirt for my brother when I go oversea, so I wanted to buy one this time as well. I knew a store that sells T-shirts stuff with Vietnamese price even though it locates in GH area (usually, the prices around there are expensive than local price). I got to know that when I was talking to Satoshi last day and he told me that he browsed some stores, and the store was the cheapest. Since I checked the price at the store, I was sure that I wouldn't buy T-shirts if they showed me more expensive prices.

As I expected, a lot of people tried to trick me at the market. Since I didn't want to waste time, whenever I went to stores that had T-shirts, I asked the price and when they told me "foreigner price", I told them that I knew the proper price so I wouldn't buy with the price. Since they wanted to overcharge foreigners somehow, they always tried to trick me with saying something "this T-shirt is different, the material is good" like that whenever I told them the price. But what I saw at the market and the store were obviously same. I don't understand why some people never sell anything to us if they can't overcharge. They sell things with Vietnamese price to local people and get some benefit. So it shouldn't matter if they sell some of us with local price when they can't trick.

Anyway, I didn't buy anything at stores that obviously wanted me to overcharge me and never gave me a proper price, but finally got 2 T-shirts for my brother with Vietnamese price at a store :) It was a store where a mother and daughter (maybe) were. When I stopped by there and browsed T-shirts, they grabbed my hands, pulled me into the store and made me sit down there, lol. I asked the price as I had been doing, and they told me what I call foreigner price. So, I told them that I knew the proper price and was not gonna buy anything if I had to pay more than it. The mother and daughter tried to bargain somehow, but I didn't give way. Since I was sure I could buy what I want with the proper price at the store beside the hotel, I was not in a rush. Actually, I was about to leave there and they finally gave way. Thus, I got souvenirs for my brother with Vietnamese price :D

There was another stingy story. At a store, I found a cute chopstick holder set and it was 70,000VND. I asked if I could get it with 30,000VND, but the girl said no. She told me she would sell me with 55,000VND, and both of us could be happy with the price. However, I felt her attitude was something taking advantage of me, and it didn't seem she would give me a better price than it. So I left there. I was sure that I would find the same thing somewhere else. Actually, I found the exact same thing soon and it was 35,000VND. Of course I bargained there as well and got it with 20,000VND in the end :P I don't know if the price was reasonable, but it was good because the girl at the store was nice (might have felt so because of the other girl).


Web album: A Trip to Vietnam

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