Negotiation

Shopping is all about negotiation or bartering here. When we went to Shaiman Island on our own yesterday, various shop keepers, tried to lure us into their shops with various offers of good prices and good quality.

Round One:
One shop had hand painted pictures, and I mean literally painted with the artist's hand. He used black ink on his fingers and parts of his hand to make various drawings. I really liked them, but we decided to do other shopping and come back. The shop keeper asked my name then told me her name was Maddy. She said, "Buy now. I'll give you a good price." I said that we'd come back. She said, "For you Kim, I'll make a good price." This was step one of the price negotiation. with the shop keeper named Maddy.

We came back about an hour later and picked out three pictures that we liked. Maddy wanted to deal with me, but I pointed to John and said he's the boss, which was a first. So, John stepped up to start the negotiation. Unfortunately, Maddy was distracted because Gabby and I were looking at stamps that could be customized with the chinese charaters of our names.

Round Two:
John tried to start negotiations, but they were kind of called off because of Gabby and I looking at the stamps. Maddy got our names and Chinese zodiac signs and had everything translated and ready to go in case we decided to buy the stamps. The stamps would have our name in English and Chinese.

Round Three:
With nothing left to try to sell us, Maddy started to deal with John. She offered all three pictures to us for 200 yuan and said that was a good deal because one of the pictures was more expensive. It actually looked less intricate than the others to me. She also quoted us 680 yuan for the four stamps.

Round Four:
Gabby and I left with a lame excuse that we were going to buy ice cream and sodas at the 7-Eleven. John countered Maddy's price of 880 yuan for everything with, "Too much" So, Maddy immediately dropped the price to 800. John countered with, "Too much" Then with a calculator she proceeded to show John how much that was in US currency. It was about $120. She was trying to switch it up by quoting US money, but John was ready with, "Too much." She dropped it down first to $115 US then $110 US.

Round Five:
Maddy tried a different avenue. She said, "Oh, your daughters are so beautiful, your wife is so pretty, you are handsome." John said, "Nice try" and did the universal sign for Pinochio, pulling his fingers out from his nose and making a whoop sound. John said, "You should have left it with the kids are beautiful. You went too far with the you're handsome line." Maddy laughed. She knew she had been caught. Now we were down to $100 US.

Round Six:
It was John's turn to switch it up. Maddy asked repeatedly for John to put in a number on the calculator. John said, "No, I'll put in a number too low and you'll get mad at me. You'll hit me or something." then he grinned really big. She said, "No, no, put in a number." Again John said, "It'll be too low. You'll be mad at me." About this time, Gabby and I came out from the store with ice cream and a soda for John.

Round Seven: The Stall
John breaks off the price negotiations to sit with me and Gabby and enjoy our snack. Maddy protests, "Don't leave. Buy now." John says, "Don't worry. I can't run away. I need a break. You're too tough of a negotiator, too good a salesperson." About then, another family from our group showed up. John, Gabby and I chatted with them for a few minutes.

Round Eight:
John walks back to Maddy with his soda and says, "You're too tough. I needed a break." Maddy replied, "No you're too tough. I needed a break." John offers to buy her a soda. She laughs. We were down to $100 US. Maddy switches back to yuan. Her new price is 700 yuan. John says, "Getting better, but too much." There's lots of talking back and forth. Maddy offers 600 yuan. John says, "This is good, but it still needs to be better."

Round Nine:
Maddy switches tactics. She gets a little bit whiny like a five year old begging for a toy. She says, "Please, please buy something from me today. Business has been so slow." John says, "You are very good. The t-shirt lady cracked by now." Maddy begs more and offers John the calculator saying, "Please, how much?" She finally types in 550 and goes through a detailed calculation showing how she is giving us a good deal.

End game. John points to our friends from the group and says, "They only paid 100 yuan per stamp at the other store." Maddy says, "Mine are much better quality. Have an artist that does it with very good detail. Chinese characters are very difficult to do." John counters, "You'd think the English characters would be more difficult because you've had more practice with Chinese." At this point Maddy gives in. She and John agree on 500 yuan, about $60 US, for everything. She will have one of the pictures repainted because I didn't like the paper it was on. Maddy asks for all the money immediately, but we couldn't get the paintings and stamps until the next day.

Of course, John couldn't let her off that easily. First he talks about the stamps. He says, "I want you to make sure that the translations on the stamps are good. I don't want them to say bad American, cheap skate, or something like that. She assured John it would be a good translation and showed John the characters on her pocket translator. Then John said, "300 yuan now, 200 when we pick everything up, and you have to call me handsome again."