As I was walking down the street in Saigon a few months ago, a guy was walking by with a large piece of cardboard covered in sunglasses. He stepped in front of me and asked if I wanted to buy a pair. I pointed to the pair on my face and told him that I already have a pair and I stepped around him. He started walking backwards to stay in front of me and said, “I give you better price!” Really, dude? What price is better than “I already have some”? I laughed and kept walking.
A few days later, I was walking to the local market, and a guy asked me if I wanted a shoe shine. I looked down at my Chuck Taylors and laughed. I said, “No, thank you” and I kept walking. About 25 yards later, I stopped to check the map on my phone to make sure I wasn’t lost (again), and suddenly the same guy was next to me, bending over, point at my shoes with a toothbrush. “There! I clean!” I had to tell him no repeatedly and eventually walk off before he got the hint.
Their strong drive to make a sale can actually work in your favor. If you’re at a market where there’s a lot of competition nearby, like the Ben Thanh market, a vendor knows that if you leave their store to look for another deal, they are unlikely to see you again. So they have to lock you down while you’re there. I accidentally used this to my advantage to haggle down the price on a North Face knockoff daypack. I was just browsing, and I wasn’t really impressed with the bag, but I figured it would be adequate if I couldn’t find anything better. The salesman offered me to sell it to me for $15, and I didn’t comment. I looked at the bag a little longer, put it down and said, no thanks and went to leave. He stepped in front of me (this is a recurring theme with Vietnamese vendors, I’ve found), and offered it to me for $14. I paused (I had to, there was a little Vietnamese man blocking my exit) and thought about it. I picked the bag up again, and countered with $5. He looked shocked and looked at me. I then explained to him what I didn’t like about the bag, not that he cared or understood what I was saying. We haggled and I eventually walked away with the bag for $9. Later I used the same, “That’s a good price, but I’m going to look around and I may come back” approach to haggle down other vendors on an UnderArmor knockoff polo shirt ($12), knockoff Columbia pants ($12), and another knockoff North Face bag ($15). I paid under $50 for all of them, and the original prices totaled over $80. Not exactly huge savings, but I also didn’t put a lot of work into the haggling.
Haggling doesn’t come naturally to Americans since we only really haggle over two things, cars and houses. And depending on where you live, you may be in a bidding war for a house rather than negotiating with the seller, which is completely different. The idea that you can haggle over random things in Southeast Asia is still surprising and is hard to get used to. But if you start to walk away, they’ll haggle with themselves and save you some hassle. If you find yourself in a market in this region and there are other stores nearby with similar merchandise, let your feet do the talking.
