Bargaining in Sri Lanka

By Chen Shupei

Bargaining is a natural part of shopping. When a Chinese person tries to buy something in a foreign country, bargaining becomes a necessary skill, especially when buying precious jewels. As a journalist working in Sri Lanka,I found it was a funny thing to bargain with a local jeweler.

In Sri Lanka, you are allowed to bargain at any jewelry store,be it a state-owned store or a privately-owned one. However the ratio of price reduction can be much different. For example, the price tag of a onecarat opal with medium quality may be over 1,000 US dollars at a store in a five-star hotel;and if you walk into a privatelyowned store, you may be asked to pay only several hundred for virtually the same gem.Moreover, the final price is often half the original offer.

In Colombo there is a privately-owned jewelry store named “Kupala” frequented by many Chinese customers. The aged owner recently handed the store down to his son-in-law,whom the Chinese customers nicknamed “Little Boss.”

Little Boss is an artful owner.He has done all he can to attract Chinese buyers. For example, he implies his “close relationship”with the Chinese Embassy by fixing on the wall of his store an enlarged photo of a wellknown leader of China visiting the place. That trick certainly works. Most Chinese buyers are likely to visit his store. If he thinks you are a potential buyer, he will invite you to a small room behind the store and show you gemstones of all types of resplendent colors. Ruby,sapphire, opal, amethyst, topaz,iolite… are all waiting there for your selection.

I once visited the store with a friend. When my friend took a fancy to a ruby, Little Boss asked him for 16,000 rupees(about 400 US dollars by the time). Our counteroffer was half the price, but the boss would not accept it. After a lot of hard bargaining, we agreed to pay 9,000 rupees, while the boss insisted on a price of 10,000.The transaction price was ultimately a little bit higher than half the asking price.

At the Khan al-Khalili market in Egypt, there was even more space for price reduction. I heard a story about a Chinese student buying gems at a store there.The owner said hello to him in Japanese, and when the student responded in Japanese without thinking, the boss demanded an exorbitant price from him.

買東西要砍價，天經地義，在國外也一樣，買寶石尤其如此。我在斯里蘭卡工作期間，耳聞目睹或親身經歷，覺得同寶石商砍價很好玩。

在斯里蘭卡，無論國有店還是私營店，都能砍價。一顆一克拉的中等質量的貓眼石，五星級飯店附屬的寶石店開價可能高達上千美元，一般的私營店也就幾百美元。最后成交價常常是攔腰砍掉一半。

科倫坡高爾路上有家私營寶石店，叫“庫帕拉”，是中國人常常光顧的。商店的老板上了年紀，生意交給他的女婿經營。中國來客管這位女婿叫小老板。

小老板心眼活，會來事，為招攬中國人的生意，動了很多腦筋。他拼命同中國大使館拉關系，把一位中國名人的照片放大后掛在店堂中，以示同中國人關系很鐵。

凡是到斯里蘭卡的中國人，想買寶石多半都到這家寶石店去。如果看你真心想買，小老板就把你請到店堂后面的小屋里，拿出五光十色的寶石讓你挑。紅寶石、藍寶石、貓眼、紫金、黃玉、星光等一溜兒擺著，讓你挑個夠。

有一次，我陪一位朋友去買寶石。朋友選中一顆紅寶石，問小老板多少錢。他開價16000盧比，約合400美元。我們還價一半，小老板不干，幾經討價還價，最后我們還到9000盧比，小老板仍堅持非一萬不賣。

這下我們心中有數了。這家店的實際成交價，基本上是開價的一半多一點兒。

在埃及的工藝品市場“哈利利”，砍價更邪乎。有一次，一個中國留學生到一家珠寶店，老板迎上去用日語同他打招呼，留學生不經意間隨口回了句日語，老板以為他是日本客，便獅子大開口。

The student asked the owner about the price of an artificial stone, and was told that it would cost him 120 Egyptian pounds(about 300 Chinese yuan by the time). The lad knew that he was taken as “the rich Japanese guy.”He at once said to the boss in Arabic that he was Chinese.

“Ah! My good old Chinese friend! You deserve the best discount. Only 40 pounds!”

Then the young man informed the owner that as a student of Cairo University he was quite familiar with the market. The foxy man threw up his hands and said,“Well, seems that you can get it with 20 dollars.” 100 dollars off of 120—a rather big reduction,perhaps.

Khan al-Khalili storeowners all look friendly and smile always.But slyness hides behind their warm smiling faces. They are just good at consumer psychology and know how to play the game.However dishonest they actually are, they can make you feel relaxed at their places. And even if you are a fastidious customer,or get pretty mad knowing how they cheated you, their smiles never fade, and then you relent somewhat.

Those experienced owners know the weakness of foreign tourists. They know that the tourists are unfamiliar with the local circumstances, and that people tend to spend more money overseas. When they are sure that you know nothing about the local market, they will ask a price and you have no idea how ridiculous it is. Even for a person who has stayed long enough in Egypt, the transaction price of things can vary. A nine-inch bronze plate carved with the beautiful Nefertiti might be sold to a tourist at 20 US dollars; for me or my friends, the price could be between 5 and 8,or as low as 2 to 3 US dollars if we bought it at a factory.

A similar example involves the Egyptian papyrus painting.I have a friend who had been a high official before he retired from an electric power company in Beijing. We went to university together. One day when I paid him a visit, I saw on the wall of his living room a papyrus painting of a mounted Ramses II on the battle field.

My friend told me that he bought it at a five-star hotel in Cairo with 100 US dollars.“Surprisingly expensive,” I thought, while he began to boast smugly about what valuable high art the painting represented. At last I decided to tell him that the wholesale price of such paintings would be only 3 to 5 US dollars each, if I were the buyer.◆

(FromChaozhou Daily,January 7, 2018. Translation:Wang Xiaoke)

當留學生問起一顆人造寶石的價錢時，老板開價120埃鎊（當時合人民幣300元）。留學生知道老板看錯對象了，就用阿拉伯語告訴老板，他是中國人。

店主一聽，馬上笑嘻嘻地改口說：“中國人好，是老朋友，應該優惠，給40埃鎊吧。”留學生又告訴老板，他在開羅大學留學，常來這里買東西。老板狡黠地兩手一攤：“看來今天只能20埃鎊賣給你了。”前后相差100埃鎊。

哈利利的老板，一個個表面上笑嘻嘻的，總帶著一張笑容可掬的臉，對外國人格外熱情，但笑臉中隱藏著狡黠。

老板們信奉和氣生財的原則，深諳顧客的心理。無論他們的“刀”磨得多快，無論他們“宰”人如何兇狠，面對不同膚色、不同國籍的顧客，他們總是竭力營造出寬松和諧的購物氛圍，讓你哭笑不得，沒脾氣。

長年在哈利利經營的店主知道，老外初來乍到，人地生疏，在旅途上大多出手闊綽。只要吃準你不了解行情，他們就漫天要價，宰你沒商量。別說是外國游客，就是我們這些過去常駐埃及的人，從哈利利買回來的東西，價錢也常常是不一樣的。一個刻有埃及最美艷后奈費爾提蒂頭像的九寸銅盤，旅游者也許20美元買走，我們有的只花8美元，有的只花5美元，而到工廠去，兩三美元就拿下來。

在埃及買紙草畫也有意思。我有個大學同學，退休前是北京某電力公司外事局局長。有一天，我到他家去，看到墻上掛著一張埃及紙草畫，畫面是拉姆西斯二世騎馬出征的圖案，典型的埃及特色。

我問他畫從哪兒來，他說是從開羅的五星級酒店買的。問多少錢，答曰，100美元。“乖乖，這么貴。”我心想。可他卻掩飾不住得意，自顧自地念叨起來，說這畫怎么怎么高檔，如何如何有收藏價值。

我知道他充了冤大頭，實話告訴他，像這樣的紙草畫我成捆買，一張也就三五美元。◆