Shopping in Pakistan is a really interesting experience. First thing that you always have to remember is to bargain bargain bargain and also bargain more. :) For a european like me, it means a lot of stress and arguing, but also a lot of fun.

 

This sunday, we went to visit the "Sunday Bazaar" in Karachi with Katya, Rahab and Andrius. A bunch of foreigners in the most typical Pakistani market.

 

For this kind of shopping, you have to reserve a lot of time, unfortunately we only had 1 hour to arrange everything. And you bargain about everything exept for food. That means bed sheets, buckets, lamps, clothes, shoes, can openers etc. And what is the trick? At least the one we tried is that we would always cut the price by 50 - 80%. Depending on the price they would name. (and since we are foreigners, the price would be always really high)

 

So when the first price for flip flops would be 200 PKR, we would go down to 100 PKR. Even still we probably paid a lot, but the guy didn't want to go lower and after we payed he even started cursing in urdu. :) And so it went with everything else. We were not lucky with all the things we wanted to buy, but for sure we will have better luck next time.

 

And here is me at the sunday bazaar :)

 

 

Another fun experience we have with bargaining, is when we take Riksha every day to and from work. Even though a local person would probably pay a bit less, we somehow always end up paying 40 PKR for one trip. If you count it to Slovak crowns (1 SKK is app. 3 PKR) it is still really cheap.

 

So the general conclusion here would be, if you really want to become a good seller. Come to Pakistan and you will learn the hard selling skills of bargaining. ;)

 

Hugs from Zamzama