REPUBLIC OF MALI (continued)
BARGAINING IN MALI
Since few prices are fixed in Mali and initial asking prices may be all over the place - often unrelated to the value of the product - be prepared to do some hard negotiating. But the degree to which you can bargain will vary with each product and seller.
For example, some high-end art and antique dealers don't like to discount much if at all. Many gold and silver jewelers quote prices close to the daily market rate for these metals.
Many NGO operations and quality shops offer goods at reasonable prices that require little or no bargaining. Some will have fixed prices.
On the other hand, some sellers may surprisingly give you an 80% discount - but only if you ask.
Our experience is that pricing is often a game unrelated to the value of goods. In fact, many merchants in tourist-saturated places initially ask very high prices in anticipation that foreigners will probably play the 50% game - counter three times with repeated 50% offers.
For example, they ask 100 and you counter with 50; they then ask 90 and you counter with 60; they in turn ask 80 and you counter with 70; and finally you both settle for 75.
However, since the real price should be 25, which still allows a 30% profit margin, you just played their game and got overcharged by 50. Indeed, the old 50% rule of bargaining (keep offering the merchant half of what he asks) will not serve you well in Mali.
On several occasions our rule was to offer only 20% of the initial asking price and then settle for 25%, which represented a 75% discount. This is not unreasonable since merchants engage in a lot of "wishful thinking" when quoting prices to tourists.
For example, Tuareg vendors will often try to charge tourists US$30 for a silver pendant when the price for the identical item in a hotel shop is only US$5.
An arts and crafts dealer may try to charge you US$800 for a wood-carved figure when it should be less than US$200, or US$25 for a small teapot which goes for US$2 elsewhere.
Be sure to do some comparison shopping before you make purchases. In many cases, you'll be quoted a "final price." However, the final "final price" will most likely be quoted when you walk outside the shop as if you are going to leave without making a purchase.
We’ve encountered similar extreme bargaining situations in China.
We encountered several sellers using a three-price bargaining process. The seller states a price, the potential buyer counters, the seller indicates a second price, a bit lower than his first price, the buyer offers a second price a bit higher than his first price, and finally each side makes a third offer.
The first time this was attempted, we didn't know what was expected and our first offer was as high as we wanted to go. When we made it clear that was our final offer and the seller could keep the item, he decided he would rather keep the sale.
In another instance, we played the "three offers from each side game" and at the end we were still apart on the price. We indicated that was our best and final offer and we were prepared to leave without the purchase. The seller then left to make a phone call (whether he did or this was a play we don’t know) to his father who supposedly owned the prices.
Following the phone call, he indicated his father's price - somewhere between his and our last offer. When we decided we would not go any higher, he said okay to our final offer - the one we had made prior to the phone call.
The reality is the vendors/shopkeepers know how much money they have tied up in an item and what they ought to be able to get for it. So don't worry about exploiting them - they are savvy merchants who are not going to sell at a loss.
If your offer is too low, they'll keep the item and sell it to another tourist. These business people are not naive or stupid. In fact, the tourist is most likely the one at a disadvantage as he/she navigates in unfamiliar territory.
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