Bargaining is definitely necessary when you are shopping in Shanghai. There are many places for shopping in Shanghai. In some of them, price is fixed. But in more of them, if you do not bargain, you are going to lose the opportunity of saving a lot of money.
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So where is bargaining possible and where not? Of course in supermatkets you can not. So do In privately owned small shops, usually you need to bargain here. The tricky part is the department stores. In most of the large department stores it is not possible to bargain. But in some department stores, mostly less popular, shops are rented to small business owners. Talking about the price is also sometimes needed.
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Why is bargaining important in Shanghai, or China? Not all, but quite some of the shop owners, especially in tourism places, tend to put a way higher price on tags than the price they can sell, in other words, the true value. Local people usually do not even look at the price tags in small shops in a mart like Yu Yuan mart(豫园商城). But foreign tourists will probably be confused by the price tags and so pay according to that. And in some of the shops, there are not even price tags, the salesmen would come up with a price when you ask, and this is when you really have to be careful. They usually think that most foreign tourists are a lot richer than local customers and a lot easier to fall into this price trap.
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How to avoid wasting money on something that does not deserve what you are? An important rule here is not to show much interest in the things that you really want to buy. If the salesmen find out that you really want to buy something, they will stick to the price and won't lower it. If they think that you do not really want to buy it much, they might even lower the price by themselves.
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When bargaining, what price should you start with? In tourism places, at least 50% off! Yes, I am serious!