How to Haggle

I always admire people who have the ability to get the price that they want for the products they are buying in the market. Haggling is a great skill and that is one of the talent that I wanted to have. My father is expert in haggling and many times he is able to buy fish and meat from the wet market at half the price. At People's Park, Tagaytay City, my girlfriend showed how good she is in haggling (or pagtawad in Tagalog) and that is one of the things at admire about her.

So how to haggle (paano tumawad)? Here are some tips:

1. Study the Vendors

If you go to the market regularly, then it is good that you study the traits of the vendors whom you are buying goods from. There are vendors who are very stingy and will not allow you to get discounts. There are some vendors who are generous and give their customers discounted prices. Always buy from vendors who give good discounts (as long as the quality is not sacrificed) so that you will build a good relationship with them. Buying from them regularly will make you as their friend and you will easily get discounts from them without much negotiation.

My father style is this. He has a mental list of generous vendors and he always buy from them whenever he goes to the market. He befriends them so that he could not be forgotten by the vendors. Aside from getting discounted prices, vendors also give him the best of their goods.

2. Act as if You are not Buying

When you are buying, never show to the vendor that you have decided to buy his/her products. Always make them feel that you are hesitant to buy their goods and your mind will change at any moment and you will go to other stores. By making them feel that way, the vendors will voluntarily offer you discounted prices to buy their products.

3. Buy Things in Bulk

The more items you buy, the higher the possibility that you will get a discount. This is what my friends did when we are buying souvenir shirts during the Pahiyas Festival in Lucban. We are 8 in the group and instead of one person buying on his own, we buy as group. We bought more than 20 shirts and the vendor allowed us to get a large discount.

4. Never Forget to Compute

Most of the vendors stick to the deal after you settled the discounted price. Some, however, will trick you and make you believe that you are paying in the settled discounted price, when you are actually paying for the undiscounted price. Be aware of this scheme and compute your purchases first before buying.

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So that’s my tips when haggling in the local markets in the Philippines. Hope my tips helps, happy haggling!


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