Bartering 101

Yesterday we went to the town of Semarang to get some items that we can’t get here in Salatiga.  Our highlight of the day was in bartering for our family room furniture.  As we walked through the mall, we saw a display of furniture out in the middle of the “hallway” that looked similar to what we were looking for, so we decided to walk over and see it.  As we sat down, the salesman came over to us to begin the process of making the sale.  Now, there are some stores in Indonesia that will not barter with you about the price but there are others that expect it.  If you take it for the first price offered, basically you are a fool.  Often times you can get the price down significantly and they are expecting you to try.  Well this was one of those places.  We soon decided that we liked this furniture and were willing to hear the guys offer.  I say “hear” loosley as we couldn’t understand a word he said but our interpreter translated for us and actually did the talking.

 

He made his offer as such; one love seat, one matching chair and our choice of coffee table… x amount of Rupiah – their dollar.  Ok so that was not a bad price but let’s see what we can do.  Our interpreter makes a lower offer…yeah, he’ll take it.  Ok lets try some more but first hem and haw about it for a little while to seem unsure.  One more lower offer.  Hmmm, now this time he’s not so sure.  “Let me call my boss”, he says.  Whether or not there was actually anyone on the other line, we’ll never know but once he hung up, he met us half way and said, “my boss won’t let me take any less”.  Ok so now we get serious.  Our interpreter is pretty sure if we get up, say no thanks and begin to walk away, he’ll take our lower offer.  Sure enough. He did.  Well that was a good sale for us for sure but that’s not the best part.

 

As we began to leave with our receipt, I hesitated and said I’d like to look it over just to make sure he had the order right.  Boy am I glad I did!!!  Upon reviewing the receipt, we realized that he threw in a full sized sofa too!  Or maybe he forgot he only said the 3 pieces and got confused.  So our interpreter asked him, is this right?  “3 seater, 2 seater, 1 seater and table?”  Yep, that was right.  Not believing her ears, she asked again “3 seater, 2 seater, 1 seater and table – four pieces of furniture?”  Yes.  That’s the deal.  Wow!!!  We really got a good deal then as we thought we were bartering for everything but the 3 seater (the largest of the furniture)!

 

I must say, next time we go for a big purchase, we will be taking that interpreter with us!!!  She is quite the shopper!

 

Seriously though.  It never ceases to amaze us how God provides.  We are still enjoying our time here and are so thankful God has brought us to this point.  Orientation begins on Monday and so we say, “Let the games begin!”