Pity the poor fool who pays the listed price for anything in Taiwan. A bargaining mentality is a must to have a successful shopping experience here, something those of us from the States have practically no experience with. Pretty much the only thing you don't bargain for here is food; everything else is fair game, even in department stores. If you're not getting a significant discount AND free sample items, then you've been ripped off apparently. For bargain hunters, this may be a paradise but it makes me wonder really how much of a "bargain" one is really getting? I mean if everyone knows that you need to bargain to complete a purchase, wouldn't sellers mark up their prices to account for that? And isn't it just an unnecessary hassle to have to do so much haggling? Although it does make for more attentive, helpful, and hands-on salespeople which can be pretty nice but also somewhat disconcerting for those of us used to browsing in relative peace.
To illustrate, Erin took me shopping for a new pair of glasses yesterday. After going through like two dozen frames, she finally picked out a Cartier frame for me. Apparently I have no fashion sense and she has expensive tastes. =p And after much haggling (which I find quite amusing) that included her labeling all salespeople as liars (it pays to have a sense of humor when you're a salesperson or store manager here), she got us a 30% discount along with 2 free sets of contact lenses and clip-on sunglasses. Afterwards she still thought she hadn't gotten a great deal on it but I thought it was a pretty decent chunk o' change.
I guess compounding the problem I have with haggling is that I'm not quite used to thinking in NT dollars yet. (US$1 = ~NT$31) So a savings of say NT$400 seems like a big deal to me even though it's really only a US$13 difference. And then I also feel bad when the salesperson caves when we're about to leave the store cause they wouldn't give us the item for the amount Erin was asking for. (This happens at the night market places, not department stores.) I know it's probably the furthest from the truth but I keep feeling like we're taking advantage of these poor folk who're just trying to make a decent living and have to deal with hordes of cheapskates every day.
Ah well, I guess it's good that I have Erin to do all the dirty work for me. ;-)
