When you buy something in a small, privately owned shop in Turkey, it's assumed that you will try to negotiate a better price. That's part of the fun. In fact, if you accept the first price they mention, the store owners will generally lower the price by a few lira just as a matter of course. If you're a good bargainer, you can often walk away having paid only half of the original asking price.
Now that it's February, and winter seems to have turned its back on this stretch of the Black Sea coast, the after-winter sales are on, and prices all over town are slashed by as much as 50%. Within the next couple of weeks, they should be down to 70% off. My flatmate, Ayse, is an extraordinarily talented bargainer (she managed to get us moved into our new flat without having to pay for the first two weeks of our occupancy), and today, she was on the lookout for a new pair of boots for her upcoming trip to Denmark.
She found a pair that she liked, tried them on, and began her negotiating. She walked over to where I was sitting to get my opinion. I thought they looked nice and asked her how much they were charging. She said it would probably be 80 or 90 lira. I gave a low whistle.
"Expensive?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Normally, they are 150 lira," she said.
"Yow!" (Don't forget, I'm used to shopping in second-hand shops and open air markets)
She went back to continue her negotiating, and I wasn't paying attention. I was just sitting down, resting my dogs. She ended up buying the boots. As we walked out of the store, I asked her how much she paid for them. She had managed to get him down to 75 lira.
"Do you know what he said?" she asked. "He said that now, we have global warming, and the winters are becoming very short, and next year, they won't even be selling boots anymore. I told him, 'Good, then I won't buy any boots,' and he dropped the price to 75."
Now that's what I call a creative sales pitch. I wonder how many people would have bought it.
kruuyai posted on Feb 12, 2009
| views: 177
Comments
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PAPERBACKWRITER said on Feb 12, 2009....
LOL ... got his taste of his own medicine, the boot seller! :D
Nice to see you around, and back dearest Kruu <3
My apologies if I have not shown my "face" visibly in your blogs...I read your epic journey (reminds me of my many travels as well, lo) & the "choke gazelle" blog (I have an anecdote about Neu Schwannstein), but if I have written my comments it might have been as long as your post.....I want to write more but I need to go out and do some groceries...perhaps when I come back....
See, originally I only wanted to say ," Hi there fried, I have missed you :)!"
<3
paper ~
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PAPERBACKWRITER said on Feb 12, 2009....
grrr editing... boots*
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kruuyai said on Feb 12, 2009....
Hi Paper! Great to see you, too. I would love to hear your Neu Schwannstein story (you know it doesn't bother me when people write long comments.... I love them). Let me guess... you thought it was about a new swan stone? lol -
PAPERBACKWRITER said on Feb 12, 2009....
Kruuuuu....snap!!!....... really need to go out but will come back later and relate my anecdotes (will do it in the appropriate recent previous blogs you posted)..........I just want to say, I am an avid reader of archives and yours transports me to happy times in my life.......... :) again, glad you are back!
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kruuyai said on Feb 12, 2009....
Paper: Awww shucks! Thank ye' ma'am. I've often wondered if anyone ever still read those old posts. I like to do that sometimes, too. :) -
kruuyai said on Feb 12, 2009....
BTW - This reminds me of a couple of other even more underhanded sales strategies that I've run up against. Back in 2001, when I had my house up for sale (by owner) I was getting contacted left and right by real estate agents wanting to get in on the action (to sell the house, not buy it). This was in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks... I had been working all summer fixing up the house to get it ready to sell, and I stuck to my guns. I did not want to pay commission to a realtor for something I could do by myself. To one particularly persistent realtor, I said that I was going to go ahead and try to sell it by myself, and if I didn't succeed, "maybe" I would give him a call. Apparently that wasn't good enough for him and he finally resorted to this: "Well, you know, with the attacks on the Twin Towers, the economy is getting worse, and the bottom is starting to drop out of the real estate market. If you wait too long, you may not be able to sell it it all..." That really pissed me off. Imagine using a national tragedy for personal gain. May his ears still be ringing from when I slammed the receiver down on the phone.
And this other time, I was travelling in Morocco during Ramadan. Normally, I travel very independently... never hire a guide or anything, but I was with a friend who seemed to think it was a good idea, since this guy had been pressing his services on us since we had arrived on the boat from Spain. I knew that these guys mostly just take you around to places for shopping so that they can collect a commission from the shop owners, but since we had to catch a train to Marrakech that very evening, and neither of us knew a language that we could get by with, I went along with it. The guide did, indeed, take us shopping. And he told us that since it was Ramadan, this was the last day that any of the markets or stores would be open in the whole country for the next couple of weeks. I didn't really believe him, but I really, really wanted to buy some stuff in Morocco (I'm usually not much of a souvenir collector, but they have some really neat stuff there). So, I bought a bunch of heavy stuff that I had to cart around the country with me. And, of course, it wasn't true... the shops were open everywhere we went, and prices were much better elsewhere. Oh well, live and learn.
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mobil said on Feb 12, 2009....
There's one born every minute Kru, I believe that. haha -
kruuyai said on Feb 13, 2009....
mobil: Oh, probably more than one. -
queenparanoia said on Feb 13, 2009....
lol... if i were there we could be shopping buddies!!! ;-) -
kruuyai said on Feb 13, 2009....
queenie: Well, get your butt on over here and let's do some shopping! Are you a good negotiator? -
queenparanoia said on Feb 13, 2009....
yes because i'm cute and sweet but i'm tough!!!! -
kruuyai said on Feb 14, 2009....
queenie: lol... I can just see you batting your eyelashes at those salesmen!
Comment on "Culture Shock 101 - Global Warming as a Marketing Strategy"
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