haggling 101

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: haggling 101 💰️ 

we’re playing we’re not really strangers at a bar in zanzibar the night before my birthday.

“what is something you admire about harsehaj”

sachi: “her money mindset.”

LMAO. 😭 

not gonna lie, i almost got scammed for 3 pieces of jewelry, but i have learned. haggling is super foreign to me — i normally let my mom do the talking in the markets in india. in tanzania, i didn’t have her for backup so it was a face-off between me and the street vendors.

here’s what i’ve learned about haggling.

1) have your own price in mind before a vendor tells you theirs 💵 

this is the hardest part for me. i’m no appraiser and i have a difficult time determining what the price for an item would be, especially when i have to modify it according to the overall value and prices of the country i’m currently in. i defer to valuing something in usd or cad, so when i have to think in another country’s value, i don’t have a good sense of how much is too much or too little.

2) the “i didn’t bring any more cash” 😬 

when we booked a biking tour in dar es salaam, two of our friends fell sick beforehand so they weren’t able to make it. there was no cancellation or late fee stated on the website for the tour or the communication i had with the organizing staff. when we arrived, they suddenly told us that we had to pay full price for the other two. i wasn’t down to do that so i used the trusty “we didn’t bring any more cash besides the amount we brought for ourselves.” these kind of things happen a lot, and we feel pressured to pay up as per western norms, but it adds up fast. we did tip our guide for his hard work, but we weren’t up for getting scammed.

3) it’s easier to negotiate if you bundle a few products 🛍️ 

when i bought 3 pieces of jewelry at a maasai village, i found it was significantly easier to haggle once i bundled a few products together and gave a collective price — i’m giving them more business and i get more value. it’s a win-win. i had initially only intended to buy 2 bracelets, but the earrings were calling my name and i told the vendor i could do 30 000 tsh for all 3 pieces (initial pricde was 45 000 for each) which is the equivalent of $12ish usd. success!

these are my 3 biggest takeaways so far. i have to buy quite a few more souvenirs before i leave, so hopefully my “money mindset” triumphs.

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