An Indian girl goes in Santorini shop 1.
“How much is this bag here?” She asked. The bag is made out of simple linen and says “I love Santorini.”
“It is EUR 5, miss,” the shopkeeper said. “It’s on sale.”
“How about this one?” she asked pointing to a similar bag with a different design.
“That is EUR 8, miss.”
“Why can’t this be EUR 5 instead?” She asked.
“The EUR 5 bag is on special price,” the shopkeeper said. “The EUR 8 bag is our regular priced bag.”
“So why can’t you make this bag EUR 5 instead?” the tourist persisted. “They are both the same bags.”
“If I wanted to make that bag EUR 8 miss, I would’ve done that earlier,” the shopkeeper patiently replied.
The Indian tourist walked into the next shop. “How much is water?” She asked, pointing to the 1 liter bottle.
“1 EUR,” the shopkeeper answered.
“Can you make it 50 cents?” she tried to negotiate. “If so, I will buy…”
“If you want to get it at 50 cents, there is a grocery or marketplace that you can buy,” the impatient shopkeeper politely answered. “But here, it is EUR 1.”
The Indian female walked away.
No offense to Indians but I don’t think that Europe is a place where you can haggle and negotiate down the price. It’s not a marketplace especially in tourist areas.
Here, either you take it or leave it.
And if you think you can set the prices better, then maybe you can set up your own shop.
It’s a bit of a pity. We’ve met a lot of very educated, cultured and well-traveled Indians on our vacation. Talking to them, you cannot help but admire where they’ve come from and how far they’ve come along.
But there are also a few less well bred Indians who destroy the positive impressions we have, showing us that you really meet people from different walks of life. They don’t have very good hygiene, have unruly children and act very funny such as my above example.
Oh well, then again, I’m sure others are laughing at us too, albeit quietly. Just shows that when traveling, you do really get to meet different kinds of people. And it’s important to observe, learn and follow what is good, and not what is bad.
Have a good weekend!
