Bargaining in Japan

Although, it doesn't happen very often where I live, there are some cases (in sidewalk stores). Most times, I come across this in swap meets, farmer's markets, and places like China Town.

Oooh! Ameyoko-- in Ueno! Kool place! I like going there after chilling out in Ueno Park! Shoot! I didn't know haggling was OK there...!

HA!! singapore and malaysia sure is bargain paradises ^_^ but i dun do it often.

I moved out of China before I learned the art of haggling. I know true masters of the art, and it is downright magnificent in its own right.

What is this consumption tax you speak of? It does not exist in this state of the US, that's for sure.

Taxis here have a set per mile price, I think, plus an initial drop fee, and a sort of "stuck waiting in traffic" timed fee. But there are also flat rates for going to places like...from the major airport into downtown, or something.
Also is consumption tax the same thing as a sales tax? I think Texas has a base rate of 6 1/4th %, and then cities can add to that, so where I live it's a little over 8% (I don't think it can be over 8 1/4th %). We don't mind since it means we don't have to pay state income tax.

17% tax in the UK?thats should be against the law.in NY its only 8.375%.i dont know why they added the .375% though

i hear about people bargaining at electronic stores and price matching+bargaining but i am not good at negotiating

Bargaining depends on the store. If its a small store you can always try and work something out the owner.

Big chains won't bargain unless the employees work on commission, then you can always get them to lower the price.

But nothing compares to an anime convention. I am a master at bargaining. I never pay full price for anything at conventions. Just 2 weeks ago at anime North I picked up $800 worth of stuff for $300. That is the power of bargaining.

The funny thing though is that if other people didn't pay full price then the vendorswould never bargain. They're willing to bargain because they know they recover the money off people who just pay the asking price.

In London's Tottenham Court Road, our "electronic" district. You can haggle with the shop owners to lower prices on anything.

I remember when I bought my laptop, I told the guy I could find it cheaper online. He lowered the price but it was still £50 more expensive than the online price, after 10 mins he still didn't lower the price but gave me a free scanner~! Woo~!

There are hardly any bargains to be had at retail stores, but online marketplaces are awesome. Other common places are in a category with "garage sales".

"Consumption" tax, locally sales tax, maybe around 7% or 8%, but don't worry the government is always thinking of new ways to tax.

Oh you are so damn right :P

I'm from Penang, Malaysia. We have a metering system for taxi, but the meters never work :p

You need to really negotiate before getting in the taxi, or else, be prepared to get chopped !! :P

it takes skill and perseverance to haggle in china and taiwan. hav yet to haggle in japan as my communicating skills arent up to par but getting there.

huhu I'm pretty bad with bargaining =_= my mom and sis however....

Hmm...in Toronto it's 14% if I remember correctly. The politicians have been fooling around with taxes to buy election votes in recent years though so I don't really know any more.

You don't haggle, in general - someone above mentioned small stores, but in my experience they're not that lenient either. Go to any Chinese store though, and you can pretty much always do it.

And yeah, I used to live in Hong Kong - bargaining paradise indeed. Wish I'd learned how to haggle before I moved.

There's no bargaining in my region, unless it comes to food at certain places, where you can ask for more of it. (not really bargaining)

The only time i've actually bargained was in China, outside the Great Wall, where people would hold stuff in your face and be like "surii doora!" lol as if that was too expensive, i ended up getting it for 1/3rd the price.

There is little bargain in japan only because many stores are owned by firms, and the one selling you the stuff, the one behind the register, has no power over the price. In privately owned places however, where the owner is the one serving the costumer, bargain is possible.
that goes for anywhere tho

back in penang when i was still there it was really common to haggle for prices if not just like danny said, haggle for more goods...
but right now in penang, the price haggling for taxis are still as bad...
those taxi drivers now would ask for both your arms and even 1 of your legs...
but now in singapore the only thing i haggle for is on computer parts and sometimes electronics...
helps if you have a good relationship with the store onwer...

Regardless of the country, if you are dating you are bargining. (^.-)

Consumption tax release? Don't you mean duty-free products or something like that?

I'll remember to bring my passport along...when I go to Japan...

The tax here is like 13%!!!

Its very common here in Colombia, in fact I own sport items stores and I have to deal with this bargaining all the time.

In America, there is no such thing. But when I have the chance to go to Mexico, I do see various shops that are based on bargains, seems very fair!

Well, there is one shopping mall in Singapore called "Sim Lim Square" where they sell IT-related products at lower price than normal market price..

Best thing is that you can still bargain for a much lower price if you ask nicely.. A must-go place if you visit Singapore..

In Brazil, it depends on where you're buying stuff.
But in most places where you have questionable prices, yeah, you can bargain.

If not to lower prices, to get better payment conditions, and other stuff.

In some places it's just as annoying as Danny described.

I personally don't like bargaining, because at least in Brazil, this usually means the seller is trying to fool you.

There are exceptions where you get better prices on stuff that is on stock for a long time and no one buys it, or when you're buying some expensive stuff... those are ok.

The consumption tax is 19.6% in France (it can be reduce to 5+% for some items like books...).

In Singapore the GST is 7% but I hate the fact it is never included to the stated prices. So you always to calculate to end up paying + 10% service charge + 7% GST (hence the "++" in the singapore prices). This is totaly cheater box in comparaison to France where you perfectly know how much you will have to pay

In the States, you'll see haggling mostly at flea markets. You can talk down the price of a used car, sometimes, depending on what your offering. Other than that you're pretty much paying the printed price.

Australia calls it GST and it's at 10%.
It's usually not mentioned when doing your general shopping or at department stores, but when involved with quoting and contract based work you'll definitely see it mentioned, and on other invoices (for smaller computer shops etc).

Oh, by the way, I want to get a camera at Bic, when and how do I get a card for when I visit? =3

when you go to Mexico as much as i do you learn to bargain.its probably more of a cultural thing.it also helps if you know the language pretty well.

Actually, you can bargain prices at some places, especially in Akihabara. I went to go buy an electronic dictionary from one of those huge 7-floor electronic shops, and I was able to get it for 3000 yen below the sticker price.

Bargaining is less acceptable at bigger stores and whatnot in Taibei, but in the night markets and smaller or more traditional venues (vegetable markets or the jade market, for instance) bargaining is definitely still how it's done.

As for this consumption tax, I don't think there's any such thing in Taiwan. I get the impression income and property taxes are probably the big ones here.

My friend went to Honk Kong and managed to haggle with a sidestall for Ferrari products. He was being stupid however since he got it low enough, left, returned and got booted away.

When shopping in large stores and shopping centers, there is almost no chance being able to haggle with them.
But it seems in Asian owned shops, it's different, most customers would try to bag a bargain. Very commonly you can see people asking for discounts etc.

In the San Diego area, bargaining is usually a no go. You could ask for more, but it depends on what the establishment is. However, I do haggle with customers at a pizza shop I work at. However, if you ever decide to visit Mexico, that is a bargain hunters dream. However, with the violence in the area, and due to new passport rules, places like Tijuana (about 20 minutes from San Diego) are on many people's "Do not want to go" list. If safe, you can haggle prices down by a lot.

You cannot live here in Manila without knowing how to get bargains! :)

The trick is once you know the price (say 1000 pesos) you ask if you can get it for half the price(500 pesos). The guy would naturally refuse so you eventually negotiate a price between 500-1000 pesos. But of course you can only do that in places that allow haggling.

In the UK people typically only bargain about major items like a new car, a house or an expensive professional camera.

Two reasons are:

1. It is not worth the time to bargain about lots of small purchases. (This applies to you the consumer and the seller too.)

2. Most shops would just say no, go away if you don't like the price.

Yeah the UK still has VAT... 17.5% is huge but we are so used to it. It is usually already included in every price so most forget that it even existed.

Not much bargaining unless I try to bargain Cantonese or something, it's really rare.

It's almost impossible to haggle here but not impossible. Maybe it's because people just read the price tag and take it for granted. My greatest achievement was getting ~7% discount on a high end computer. It made me wonder how much they usually earn on each sale. Ok, it might have helped that I was in their customer database already but still it took some creativity. Another time I searched for some hardware online and figured out how much it would cost. Because I didn't trusted the store I went to the local store, asked for the same product and the price was somewhat higher. I then showed documentation of the cheaper offer (no word about not trusting that store) and I instantly got a discount. Maybe I should try to haggle a bit more as it worked 2 out of 2 times so far.

7% in Singapore...

used to be 0% before 1st April 1994...

ameyoko! last time i went, a shopkeeper asked me in a low voice if i spoke chinese (in mandarin). i replied yes in mandarin. *bang* *bang* he gave me another 2 bags of macadamia buts. i ended up carrying 7 bags of assorted nuts home ^^. if you speak mandarin, you might just get more!

Hmm no clue bout the "consumption tax" here, but the VAT is 19% right now, it has been raised a year or two ago, i forgot. x.X

I tried the bargain thing once in a MediaMarkt (electronic store) when i bought a load of stuff for total of 700euros, they gave me a discount on my dinovo keyboard... 10euro... more wasn't possible...
So just because you buy a lot of expensive stuff doesn't really help you always in geting a discount as it seems.
Other then that i never really tried it, dunno why... guess got used not to do bargaining.

No Sales/Consumption tax here in OR ^o^

Only from time to time do I find a place that I can haggle. Most of your average stores and such don't do a whole lot of haggling in the US, you pay what the tag says. But on occasion you can find places where you might be able to haggle a bit. Although, it's pretty much a given thing that you're supposed to haggle on the price of a new (or even used) car, you'll be overpaying by a LOT if you don't.

In most every store bargaining is unheard of, and impossible. But when you go to festivals, or Anime conventions bargaining is key.

My friends and I do this every year xD. We update our PCs together last time we were 8 persons and bought things for 4800 Euros together and got ~15% off. I used a Point Card for some time but most times the money i got from purchasing things at stores where i got points, those things are priced higher then on some stores on the internet. If you search a little you can find differences as high as 40%. For example i bought my 42" LCD TV for 900 Euros from an online store, the store which would give me points sold it for 1350 ...

Tax rates here in the Netherlands are 6% on food and medicine but a damn 19-21% on other goods ):

It's in each and every Malaysian's blood to bargain and bargain and bargain for hours, and end up not even buying. If you don't know how to bargain, you're not a Malaysian. XD

A Japanese acquaintance of mine told me that prices are usually fixed the there are exceptions like Osaka where it is a 'hobby' to bargain. *shrugs*

A easy sentence to use if bargaining is 'yasuku shitekudasai'. I think it means 'please give me a good price'.

Haggling in Holland? No. Abslutely. No. You will be tossed out on your ass if you try; even though we Dutch are notorious for being cheap. Did haggle from the local street vendors when I was in Rome though.

I always try and get a better price.

In Japan I managed to get a small laptop for 10% less at some major electronics store (think it was softmap).

Here, depending on the store, you'll get a couple of % off.

It's always worth a try ;)

Here in the US, at least where I live, very very few stores allow you to haggle. But what they will do is if you show them a current ad from one of their competitors they will usually sell something to you at the competitors price if it's lower rather than lose your business to said competitor.

It's customary to haggle on used cars though, even from a dealership, and a lot of people haggle at garage sales.

Ffufufufufu, haggling is really rampant here, I even haggle when I buy Gundams!

Here in New Hampshire (US), we pay 0% sales tax. "Live Free or Die" state.

no wonder japs customers that came to my shop never ask for discout..straight away buy..i really like them..lol

i work part time in a jap electrical shop..the boss is a japanese..
so every time local customers ask for discount he'll be like, "why discount? so cheap already"..hahahah

I wish I had learned more about bargaining from my parents..

They're good at it but their son sucks at it.

And as you can guess, bargaining in Indonesia is customary, probably it is customary in SE Asia. ^^

Our true criminal is the government....we have a low tax (6,5%) on food and primary life-support goods.

The secondary (luxury and fuel) are 19%.

Our vice prime-minister is considering to raise the 19% to 20%......this is what we call 'legal theft' in The Netherlands......Damn that Wouter bos...

over here, bargaining is common. well not at those big department stores but at those neighbourhood shops and small outlets.

in fact i sometimes bargain at toy shops when buying figures. usually can get a few dolars off. ^^;

In Australia, it is very tax heavy.

We have several layers of tax.

On all goods, there is Goods & Services Tax, otherwise known as GST of 10% on all items except for a few essential things like condoms, medicines, milk and the like.

We also have one of the highest income tax in the world. Everyone is taxed a different amount in the fiscal year depending on your salary.

On average, most people pay 30c out of every dollar they earn to tax. Higher earners pay more. I pay approximately 40% tax from my yearly earnings. On paper, I earn just short of 80,000AUSD pa, but really, its closer to 50 as a good 40% of it has gone to tax.

Australia has high tax since it funds a range of welfare services. Health insurance, health care, pensions etc etc.

oh ya regarding the taxi charges in malaysia mentioned by danny. malaysia's taxi don't have a meter (correct me if i'm wrong) so one must agree on the price first before getting into the taxi.

theres many places to bargain like those street shops or our famous 'bugis street'.. and markets for onions.

I dont usually bargain though

Plenty of bargaining when I travelled to China back in 2006. They tend to charge tourist higher than locals (usually 1.5 to 2 times), so you gotta know how to bargain (and have someone who can speak Mandarin). As my Beijing tourguide would put it, no matter how successful you are at bargaining, there will always be someone who managed to get something similar for even less than what you bargained for.

In Estonia it sometimes happens - when you are buying something expensive and you are willing to pay in cash, then you can get a discount from some shops. Onetime my friend was buying a new laptop, and he got about 1000 off from 12900(EEK) or smth.

Here in India, everything can be bargained for. Food, clothes, utensils, furniture, you name it. Shopkeepers actually will find it odd if someone doesn't bargain. Only the newly opened malls dont allow bargaining on their stuff. :(

Bargaining isn't really an option that most people have. However, when you are buying a car you can haggle. It's pretty much a given that you never pay the sticker price for a vehicle. Also, if the place you are buying pays employees by commission you can haggle. Though this is to a lesser extent.

Its impossible to bargain here because we always have to pay the 20% tax over everything and no one can avoid it and if you do the government will get your things then sell them in an auction. The only place I remember bargaining was in New York City which was pretty cool buying a $500 watch and only paying $250 for it at a watch dealer in Wall Street ^_^

Here in the philippines, traditional here is discount when buying veggies,fruits,clothes,etc in the street market and "Ukay-Ukay"(UK-in the
lowest word) but not all markets agree with these discount things. Especially some foreign people learned to discount
in the market in "Divisoria" and "Greenhills" but all items are hand made to a person who created and somes are "Made in china"..

Over people basically bargain everyday. I have costumers like that all day, every day.

It's a bit less frequent on mega stores, like Pennys or Sears, but people here usually say something along the lines of "and that's the price? no discount, nothing you can do at all??"

I usually apply discounts daily, not on a percentage basis, but more like 1 or 2 bucks, depending on the merchandise, a rough estimate. It's so much a big part of the people here, they usually are gratefull if you discounted a buck or 2.

in France tax is almost 20%, so do not forget the duty free at the airport(I've seen a special system of tax refund for the japanese people at the CDG airport). U can bargain in France specially in the flee market of Paris but it's very rare now, and by the past it was a national sport. Maybe I was lucky but I've already bargain in Tokyo and it work. It was for my Xacti 1000 at the Labi of Ikebukuro, and I low down the Price of more than 10000 yen (pay 66000, regular price was 78000 +carry Bag and tripod) :)

Everything here in GA (for the most part) is bought at face value. You may be able to bargain with independent shops, but never any cooperations.

The sales tax here in Atlanta GA is 7%.

Back in PH, my dad is a pro at haggling prices down to half (and sometimes even more) from their original price.

Like many Malaysians have already pointed out, bargaining is a very common thing around. Personally, I don't usually bargain. Mendokusai nan dakara.
As for taxis, they all have meters. Have heard stories that some of them meters "don't work well" and the price turns out to be, like Danny mentioned, "two pints of blood", but am not sure if those stories are true or not. All the taxis I have taken so far have been charging normal and acceptable fares.
But as some of you have said, it's not unusual to agree on a price for the trip instead of using the meter. And with the recent petrol price hike, visitors to Malaysia now will see this happening more often.
Ah- Sorry for rambling. ^^;

come visit my country

you can bargain for 30-50% of the displayed price... hahaha

public transportation have a fixed price. You can't bargain. Supermaket have fixed price also.

But if you go to shopping mall, you may bargain. For elctric shop, you may bargain from 20-30%, for clothes you may bargain from 40-50%.

Many people in my country love to bargain. That's why when I came to Singapore and doing bargain, they will angry. Maybe we can't bargain in Singapore. CMIIW.

Yeah, VAT is 17.5% in the UK. Haggling is quite common near where I live since there are a lot of markets.

If its 1,000 yen or less and I like it, i'll usually grab it immediately otherwise i'll start regretting it when i leave Japan.

one of the first things my mom taught me was how to haggle xD

Bargaining is almost never done here aside from very informal occasions.

I'm born and bred in Penang, Malaysia :) Bargaining is part of our everyday culture although you can't bargain at malls with fixed pricing.

Getting a good price in Penang sometimes doesn't require much bargaining. Some sellers really offer dirt cheap prices if you know where to find them.

I have never seen or heard anyone bargain before. I sometimes get freebies though, just because I'm foreign.

16% of vat here in Spain.

It's starting to happen here in the US. Apparently, you can ask for discounts for slightly dinged or floor model items, or items that are overstocked. There have been some news reports on it lately.

Haggling or bargaining here is a custom but you can only haggle at small shops which we call a "tiangge" ^^

The "bargain central" or what we call Divisoria here is the place if you want to buy something cheap and could still haggle for the price or the quantity. ^____^

It's impossible to survive in Singapore without haggling... or so it was a few years back. Nowadays it's impossible to haggle at a mall, eh?

There are certain places where it's ok to bargain. There are places where it's really out of place. Usually, privately run/owned shops are the most bargain friendly. Large chain stores..well, thats pretty obvious. Good thing about Taiwan is about 80% of stores are pretty much private =)

Actually in Osaka bargaining is considered normal even tough not everyone do it. Even in biggest show chains is possible to get a 10-15% rebate even on already discounted items! Just try!!
I love Tokyo but Osaka is definitely cheaper for otaku shopping!

Haggling would piss me off. I'm there to buy something, not to socialize or engage in brinksmanship. Having to haggle necessarily means that that vendor is a schmuck who doesn't respect his customers and tries to rip every single one of them off if he can. In such an environment, one must be not only a cynic, but force one's self to deal with the aforementioned schmuck to get anything done. Who'd want to deal with that on a regular basis?

uk,no talking in the big supermarket
all go thought the barcode scan and cashmachine will be what you got,not sure about smaller shop

A few years ago was more common, but now nobody bargains, but all depens of the shop, and the person... Myself bargains a few on second- hand games shops sometimes XD

I haggle everywhere... Well, not quite... Only in places where it's apporpriate... For example, if I'm in a supermarket... I don't.
If I'm buying an expensive appliance, I do.
If I'm in a shop like a comic shop or figure shop or 2nd hand shop, I will. :)

I used to be embarrased when my dad did it... But it's actually kinda fun.
Can't blame a guy for trying :D

You don't get by living around here without knowing how to bargain. I think it's a norm here.

Man i really hate bargaining I am sincerely sorry but i do. Thank god as long as I have a PX to go to I will go there its way cheaper than anywhere I have been to shop.

Most of the time, haggling doesn't fly, especially if you're in a store owned by a large chain. But if you're in a Mom and Pop shop, or if you're willing to buy a slightly damaged, returned item, you can sometimes bring them down a bit. Also, buying the floor models sometimes gets you a discount too, but that's more the luck of circumstance than anything else.

The one time you can haggle even in a chain store is with furniture--usually, they mark it up so much that they can afford to bring the price down quite a bit. Sometimes they'll mark it up as much as 200%!

If you're at a craft fair or a convention, though, it's a whole different game. You're not coming to them so much as they're coming to you, and they know it. The best thing to do in those places is to scout for stuff you like the first day, then come back on the last day and do your haggling. They want to ditch their stuff before they go home, so they're way more likely to haggle with you. A friend of mine got something like $300 off a flute that way once.

Bargaining is really common where I come from (and not where I currently live). In fact, I was able to bargain (sort of) for my figures. I got some of them cheaper than the others. Whoo! ^o^

Bargaining in Texas is common even in retail stores . Tax here is about 10% . In Texas the seller will make the bargain most of the time.

Gosh I'm from that Penang Malaysia you're talking about!!

But as Penangites we do have our own transport around so we don't go around flagging a cab, so, no I'm not sure if they still practice that in Penang.

However I can tell you in KL or else where it is still the same, you get ripped off if you're foreigners!

I live in California. There is a sales tax here of almost 10% on almost all purchases of goods. Food purchased at a supermarket is exempt, but snack foods, alcohol, and soft drinks are charged the tax. There is also a beverage container tax of $0.05 per can or bottle, but you can get that back if you take the empty cans/bottles to a recycling center. Services such as having your clothes laundered or your car washed are not charged the tax.

Some countries have high VAT taxes on goods (e.g., 15-20% in Europe), but supposedly they have lower personal income taxes. United States supposedly has a low income tax, but many states (e.g., California, New York) have their own income tax of 10% and high sales tax 10% as well. Then there are high property taxes (1-2% of the value of your home every year).

When visiting Japan and buying things to take home with you, you can sometimes avoid the consumption tax 消費税 by bringing your passport with you to the store. There is a form that the store will fill out for you. This is good if you buy something expensive like a camera or computer or maybe just a lot of figures.

It's about 20% in Italy. Really too much.