Haggling is when you negotiate back and forth while a vendor over the price of a good or service. In most Western countries, haggling is relatively uncommon. The closest thing to haggling in Western countries would be asking for a discount or better price with a travel agent or used car dealer. Even this is worlds apart from what haggling means in many parts of the world. Haggling is common in so many parts of the world like South East Asia, China, Latin America, the Middle East and even parts of Eastern Europe. In many of these countries, you can haggle on anything from the cost of a haircut to a taxi fare to the price of a pair of shoes.
Is it ethical?
This is a massive debate in many traveller and backpacker communities, with many differing opinions. On one end of the spectrum is the argument that if you are privileged enough to travel from a “developed” country to a “developing” country, you should pay full price for everything and not haggle. That the $5 you save haggling on a t-shirt might not mean much to you. But an extra $5 could mean weeks worth of food for the vendor’s family.
On the other end of the spectrum, not haggling can actually be harmful to local economies. Paying the initial price quoted without haggling can drive up prices for locals. For example, if a shop owner knows he can sell a pair of pants to a tourist for $20. Why would he then sell the same pair of pants to a local who may need them for work for $5?
This could be a whole blog post on the ethics of haggling and all the arguments for and against it. But there are much better articles and blogs dedicated to this debate. Everyone has their own opinion, and if you want to research the ethics of haggling more, there is a deep rabbit hole of arguments on the internet that you can easily find. Personally, I sit firmly in the middle of these arguments on haggling. I think there is an ethical way to haggle where you are both getting a fair price and giving the vendor a fair price.
How to haggle ethically
Haggling is not about getting something for “cheap”. Haggling is a negotiation where both parties (the vendor and the buyer) should feel like they got a fair deal. It’s light-hearted and can be pretty fun. It is certainly an experience and an education on how non-western economies function. Haggling is expected in many places, so the initial price you’ll be given for an item is often quite inflated to account for haggling.
For example, let’s say a store owner usually sells a t-shirt to locals for $5. Let’s say that t-shirts cost them $3 to buy. The vendor makes a $2 profit every time they sell a t-shirt for $5. When that shop owner sees you (a tourist), they will automatically put up that price. They may offer you the t-shirt for $20, and then you haggle it down to $10. You feel like you’ve gotten a good deal as you haggled the price down and saved $10 (and hopefully had a good time while doing it). The vendor also feels like they got a good deal because they made an additional $5 profit on the t-shirt from selling it to a tourist (and they probably also enjoyed the haggling experience). This is the perfect haggle scenario and what you should aim for in order to haggle ethically!
What you can haggle on
There are so many things you can haggle on! Basically, anywhere you get a verbal price, you can and are usually expected to haggle this price as it will be inflated. These can be things like:
- Prices of goods at a marketplace. Clothes, artworks, homewares, souvenirs, shoes. Anything without a written price is fair game. This is where most travellers will haggle as the initial price 90% of the time will be massively inflated to account for haggling.
- Taxi or private driver fares. Again, this is a common price to be haggled as it is often way inflated.
- Fresh fruit and other produce at a local market.
- The price of services like a haircut or manicure (if they don’t have fixed prices on a price list). Even if they do have fixed prices, sometimes you can ask them to do a deal for you if you are getting multiple services done at one beauty salon.
- The price of a tour or transfer through a local travel agency. If you have the time, compare prices between local agencies for the same tour or transfer, and you can use these prices to negotiate. Travel agencies work on commission, and usually, their first price offer will be an inflated rate, as they are hoping you can’t be bothered walking to other agencies to price check and compare.
What you can’t (or shouldn’t) haggle on
- Anything with a price tag on it. This is a fixed-price item. You could potentially try and get a multi-item discount if you were purchasing a few things. However, in fixed-price stores, they usually won’t do any discount and trying to haggle may be frowned upon.
- Food in a restaurant. Prices will be as per the menu. Also, attempting to haggle on a fixed price with someone that prepares your food is probably not the smartest decision.
- Entrance fees to attractions. Prices will generally be displayed on a sign. If you’re a student, you could ask for a student discount. I always used to travel with my Australian student card, and this worked in so many random places around the world!
- Street food. This is not a hard and fast rule, but generally, street food is something pretty affordable, and vendors don’t tend to mark up or change prices much. If you do haggle on street food, you’re likely only to get a discount of less than 50 cents, which doesn’t really seem worth it.
- Haggling on something just for the sake of haggling. If you felt like the first price you were offered was a fair price, take it. If you haggle on everything, you’ll end up being that guy spending 5 minutes haggling with a local vendor over the equivalent of 10 cents in your home country.
Figuring out an item’s worth
Before you even start haggling, you need to know roughly what the cost of the item is. Not only the regular cost (i.e. what people would usually pay in this place for this item) but also the individual cost to you. So let’s say you want to buy a pair of pants. You’ve done a quick Google search or spoken to people at your hostel and think the average pair of pants costs around $12 in the country you’re in. Now you have to think about the cost to you. Would you be willing to walk around the market for 2 hours comparing prices of pants and haggling just for the pants at $12? Or would you settle for $14 if it mean you only had to ask prices in the first two shops and you only spent 10 minutes doing this?
It is incredibly easy to get caught up in haggling and be that person who spends the whole afternoon haggling things down to the last 10 cents to get the best deal. Not only does this feel a bit ethically icky that you haggled so hard over 10 cents (an amount that probably doesn’t mean that much to you), but also, you may feel like you’ve wasted a day. Haggling can be really exciting and fun, but in order to ethically haggle, we need to keep in mind the value of the amount haggled to us and to the vendor.
A step-by-step guide to haggling
So keeping with the above example, you’re looking to buy a pair of pants, and you’re expecting to pay around $12. You’re in a market stall, and you’ve found the pair of pants you want to buy.
- Usually, if you walk into a store and look at an item for over 3 seconds, the vendor will approach you and offer you a price. If not, you can also politely get their attention and ask for the price.
- Let’s say the vendor tells you the pants cost $20.
- You should offer a price much lower than what you actually want to pay so you wiggle room to haggle the price up. So in this example, I would offer $5.
- The vendor will usually make a bit of a show. This is all in a very playful tone! They might say something like, “$5?! No, that’s too slow. I couldn’t even buy XYZ for that price. I’ll do you a deal. $17. Very good price.”
- You should start playing the game a little here. Pretend to be hesitant. Maybe say something like, “Mm, for $17, maybe I don’t need the pants. Would you consider $8?”
- Again the vendor will say something like, “$8. I thought we were friends. My friend, that price is not good. I can do $14 just for you, my greatest friend”.
- You might accept $14 as it is still a pretty good price, and you don’t want to keep walking around the market trying to find the same pants again.
- Or maybe you do want to pay closer to $12. If this is the case, walk away. Nine times out of ten, the vendor will chase you and offer you a lower price again. Let’s say she offers you $12.
- And that is how you haggle! You didn’t pay the tourist price of $20 initially offered, so you feel like you got a good deal. The vendor sold the pants for $12 when the local price is probably more like $8, so she still made a $4 profit because she sold to a tourist.
Tips for being an ethical haggler
- You don’t always have to haggle. If you feel the initial price offered is fair and what you want to pay for it, then pay.
- If you find yourself haggling over a price of as little as $1, consider whether you actually should be haggling. That $1 will mean much more to the vendor than it will to you.
- If you don’t feel comfortable haggling at all while travelling, you don’t have to. Some people enjoy haggling, while others feel uncomfortable. Haggling is entirely your choice, but you will have to budget for paying a higher price for goods and services.
- Don’t haggle just for the sake of haggling. It is a bit of a game, and both parties should enjoy the haggle. But at the end of the day, it’s how they make their livelihood. If you have no intention of buying something, don’t waste their time haggling just for the experience or thrill.
- Haggling should never be aggressive or rude! It should always be light-hearted and an enjoyable experience for both buyer and vendor. Don’t continue haggling if the vendor seems angry or upset. This could be a sign that this is not an appropriate place to haggle (like a restaurant). It could also be a sign that you are offering a completely unfair price and being inflexible on this.
- Always be polite and friendly to the vendor! Building rapport and having a bit of a laugh with them while haggling will often result in a more successful haggle.
- If you’re haggling on a taxi, you can use a rideshare app pricing like Grab or Uber as a guide. However, you don’t want them to match the rideshare app as often rideshares driver get paid criminally low amounts. Meeting them in the middle between the price they have offered and what price you can get on a rideshare app will often be a fair deal for both of you.
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