Haggling over prices

By JAMES ANTHONY

Travellers to exotic parts of the world experience many new sights, sounds and ways of life on their journey and, if they are lucky, they can learn all about the gentle art of haggling.

That immediately brings to mind the Monty Python movie Life of Brian where the hero is trying to buy a beard and gets into all sorts of bother with the trader because he doesn't have time to haggle over the price and is happy to pay the asked-for amount straight-up.

Unfortunately, in the non-celluloid world, that will never happen as many of the traders hope against hope that the customer will fork out the maximum price without worrying too much.

My first experiences with the concept of haggling go back to the pleasant city of Agadir in Morocco, where my Third World-travelled fiancée was after a pair of earrings from a shop in a commercial district.

"How much?" says I. The figure came, 160-odd dirhams, equivalent to $25 - a price thought reasonable - and so over went the money.

Outside the gift was presented and the immediate question was "what did you pay?"

"Er, what he asked."

"You didn't haggle?" came the incredulous response.

"Er, no, it was a shop."

"Always haggle. Anywhere, everywhere, all the time," she said, shaking her head gently.

Lesson learnt. Always haggle.

So, the next time we stopped to buy something I bravely stepped forward to accept the challenge of knocking down the asked-for price.

Now, it needs to be pointed that the locals - pretty much wherever you go - are a pretty canny mob and you can guarantee they know the exchange rates for all major currencies better than you do. They also pick nationalities.

For example, they regard those at the top of the sucker-buyers list as the easy targets where they can get whatever they ask for. You'll discover that one of the first questions asked is where are you from, and from there they know where to go with any negotiations.

No.1 suckers were German tourists. The Americans came second, followed by the British and other Europeans. Australians and New Zealanders feature well down because our hordes have probably been that way before and the locals know we often travel with little cash and are exceptionally eager to hold on to as much of it as possible.

So there we were, waaaaay out in the Moroccan desert, just on sunset, stopping to take a photo of a picturesque village in a valley. When we had stopped there was no-one around.

In the five minutes it took to set-up the tripod and fiddle-faddle about we turned to discover more than 20 villagers jammed around our car. We were offered all sorts of things and nothing looked worthy of a place on the mantle at home.

All, that is, except one rather nice African head with looped earrings that had been carved out of one piece of stone. Hmmm. "Okay, combien dirhams?"

The answer came back that it was 100 dirhams ($A15). I would have paid the money gladly but, under the watchful eye of she-who-knows-her-stuff, immediately turned on haggle mode.

"30 dirhams." We found an initial offer of a third sets a good starting point for realistic pricing … and the following.

The first is a look of horror, then comes an almost wailing of "Oh, it is Ramadan and I have five sons look after."

So the talks began and five minutes later achieved a modest success - getting the price down to 45 dirhams, albeit with a packet of she-who-knows-her-stuff's cigarettes thrown in for good measure.

Terrific, great deal, thought I. That was until we reached the next biggish town and discovered a little market with the damn heads by the tray load - all for 30 dirhams. My confidence was shattered.

Determined to taste success at some stage, my next chance came in a touristy spot near the Todra Gorge that sold same gorgeous little carpets. We found our favourite ones and then again this fellow stepped into the breach.

With reputation on the line I smiled at the asking price of 480d ($75) for each and threw back the figure of 160d ($25).

"Oh, it is Ramadan and I have five sons look after," came the cry from our chap, who looked far too young to have that many little ones hooning about.

He countered with 400d and then offered mint tea. A word of warning here, every experienced traveler will advise against drinking mint tea until after haggling is done. For some reason, sipping the fantastic beverage makes a tourist more kindly disposed to the trader's price.

Anyway, despite an adjusted offer of 195d our boy was determined not to let us have the carpets and so we turned and headed for the door. This always works to judge your pricing as it lets the person know you are serious and he'll lose the business. And, you can bet, that most of the time you'll be called back. We were and the price was a much better 260d each.

"Will you take 220d?" I put the query and in between invocations to the gods and family history our lad was very tempted. However, his ego came into play and he just couldn't allow himself to be out-haggled by the blow-in from Oz.

"240! 240d and that is my final price." We had to continue our journey and so agreed, almost out of pity really.

The deal was struck and our lad positively beamed, his honour intact. Mind you, you should have seen how fast the expression changed when the credit card was pulled out waved at him!

The best way to describe it was as an honourable draw. He had made a sale, but was miffed about the price. This chappie recovered some honour in the eyes of she-who-knows-her-stuff and almost wiped out the humiliation of the previous African head incident.

There is a real delight in bargaining and from that trip on - even in Europe and Australia - I have always haggled over prices (much to she-who-knows-her-stuff's embarrassment). You'd be surprised at how much you can save!