Fun With Negotiations

At the end of our time in Mozambique, we wanted to get a couple of souvenirs for us and couple things for our families. We ventured down to the street vendors (Maputo's version of Silk Alley in Beijing) and started looking and mapping out strategy. We had been advised to try to get about half the initial asking price (although 60% would be more realistic). Midway through meeting the first vendor, I realized that we had an advantage that other American tourists typically lack - we speak Chinese.

You may be saying, what the heck does that matter, you are in Mozambique! Precisely. Every other cross-cultural negotiating situation that I have been in, the local knows enough English to understand what Emily and I are saying and thinking. He uses this tactical advantage to be firm on prices when he knows that we like it or to play to those areas that we like and compensate for shortcomings. Not so in Maputo. We switched to Chinese, started at 35-40% of the initial cost and held firm, gettting excellent deals. It was funny to see the looks on the guys faces as we started speaking Chinese - they appeared quite unnerved!

Again, one might object and say: Spencer, you were being cruel by driving down the price of these vendors - they don't have enough to eat, and you ought to be generous with them! On the contrary, those who are typically starving and oppressed are the villagers, who have no access to the market, irrigation systems, or meaningful employment. Street vendors do alright and typically manage a living far above others. At any rate, I don't particularly like the constant haggling and negotiating routine that we experienced, but if you've got to deal with it (and expend energy and time), you might as well "go low" :) The vendors certainly still made a profit and would not have sold their goods if the transaction wasn't win-win.