Bargaining in Chinese?

[abcdefg]

My best round of bargaining occurred one day in Kunming when I followed an elderly local couple on their morning market rounds. The old lady was a masterful bargainer and her husband lent her just the right amount of well-rehearsed support. I stood slightly behind them and to one side, carefully observing what they paid after lengthy negotiations. Then I quickly approached the vendor and said “I want the same” handing over the same amount of money as my mentors had just paid. It worked beautifully, but of course it was a one-time thing.

[Lu]

Hah, I did that once, quietly looking at necklaces as a Chinese girl next to me asked about the price. When I asked, the sales lady started higher, so of course I said: But you just told her it was so-and-so much! and bargained down from there. When I was done haggling and bought the necklace, I heard the girl from earlier borrow my price: You just sold it to the laowai for so-and-so much, now I want it for the same price!

Also, starting at half the initial offer is too high, in my opinion. Of course it depends on the place and the starting price, but you can start much lower, at one-fifth or so.

A friend of mine was good at bargaining, she used to borrow the lines of the salespeople: Come on, if you give it to me cheaper I'll xia ci zai lai. Jiao yige pengyou ma2, gei wo pianyi yidian. And smile, of course, it's all a game.

[han_bole]

or you can try : 你给我开玩笑吗？ with a big smile. (are you kidding ?) ni gei wo kai wanxiao ma

[imron]

你跟我开玩笑吗 would probably be more common.

[Don_Horhe]

Plenty of good advice in this topic, especially the part about having people for support. Last weekend our university took us on a trip to Three Gorges Dam, where a friend of ours found a chess set she wanted to buy and take back home. The initial price was 1080 RMB, and with help from this other guy who was constantly typing 200 on the clerk's calculator, no matter what she was saying, and me, who was pointing out all sorts of (non-existent) defects, we managed to get it for 250. If we had stayed more, I'm sure that they would have settled for 200 or even less, but what the hell, both sides were happy as it was.

[gougou]

and daring to behave like a jerk

That depends on what you mean by acting like a jerk. I strongly second lu's suggestion to keep smiling. You won't be able to force them to give you a low price by looking very fierce. It's a lot about keeping the conversation friendly.

[abcdefg]

For what it's worth, many of these same techniques will work for you in Mexico City or Cairo too.

[leeyah]

That depends on what you mean by acting like a jerk. I strongly second lu's suggestion to keep smiling. You won't be able to force them to give you a low price by looking very fierce. It's a lot about keeping the conversation friendly.

Agree. It's the concept of face that gets business done in China. You know, 看面子, the Chinese etiquette: never make anyone feel inferior in any way. Don't forget to smile!