Shopping and Bargaining


Randy's Travel Tips
on Shopping On the Road



 A "Reader's Choice" award winner from Whispers On-Line Magazine, 1999.

Copyright © 1992-2008 Randy R. Johnson, all rights reserved.

Shopping Table of Contents

Shopping Souvenirs and Trinkets Collecting Count Your Fingers! Mailing Home Mailing Packages The Import Business Bargaining Rules to Bargain By Advanced Bargaining Bargaining Lessons Team Bargaining Other Bargains

Footloose and Fancy-Free Table of Contents
You're visiting Randy Johnson's Travel Page!

   Shop 'Til You Drop?

Traveling isn't nearly the shopping trip that a short tour can be. You don't have room to carry many purchases, and you will probably be watching your budget. But that just means you can spend more of your shopping time making sure you get something really special, and do less buying. Even if you aren't looking for souvenirs, you will still spend a good amount of time just shopping for essentials like food, underwear, toiletries, and (for some travelers) chocolates.


Shopping

Everyday Items

Shopping would be much easier if you already knew where to find everything. It sometimes takes a week or two in a country before you learn the local equivalents of your common needs, where to buy them, and a fair price. You can spend most of a day scouring an entire town for toilet paper, batteries, or air-mail envelopes. I finally had to ask the cashier at a New Zealand supermarket where to find the milk. She looked at me as if I were rather odd and said "We don't have milk, this is a supermarket." In New Zealand, milk is only sold at the "dairy", which looks like a small corner grocery shop and is the only place open on Sundays.  [June '02 -- My careful Kiwi readers are happy to correct my antiquated story -- you can definitely now buy milk in the supermarket in NZ! And most stores are now open 7 days a week! Thanks].

In Japan there are special shops just for rice, although you can now find it in supermarkets, as well. In Mexico, beer is dispensed from the "despendido", and there may be one for each different brewery. If you want a drink in Syria, you must search for the narrow little counters that dispense liquor. Many unmarked neighborhood bakeries sell bread as it comes out of the oven, and if you don't get there on time, it's all gone. In traditional communities, signs are unnecessary since everyone knows everyone else's business, what they sell, and when they sell it.

The most interesting places to shop are in the local marketplace, bazaar, souk, or cart-lined alleyway. You can spend hours -- or days -- just wandering around in the larger markets and watching the locals bargaining for goods. Prices here should be as low as anywhere else. There may be several marketplaces in one city, some specializing in different types of goods, or active at different times of the day. In small villages, the central market is the place to be in the morning to catch the local culture at its busiest. Many smaller communities have special market days once or twice a week, and it pays to find out about them. Most marketplaces have food stalls somewhere nearby, where you can sit and enjoy breakfast or lunch as you watch the excitement. Even if you don't do any cooking, you can enliven your diet with fresh local fruits from the local market. You will need to bring your own shopping bag; a light day pack will do, or you can often get a local string bag quite cheaply.

Check out The Gringo Market story under Glimpses of the Road, back on Randy's Travel Page.

Shopping for specific items from home can be frustrating. Something like chapstick is just unknown in many countries. Look for local alternatives, head uptown to the flashier shops, and as a last resort, visit the biggest, fanciest tourist hotel you can find in a large city. They may or may not have a small supply of toiletries, cosmetics, sunscreen, tampons, combs and such, all at outrageous prices. Unfortunately, you may also be tempted by equally exorbitant bars of ancient European (or probably British) chocolates, and a few other goodies which you don't need nearly as much as some decent sunscreen. Otherwise, just wait until you get to a more modern city.

Souvenirs (Presents and Trinkets)

Bringing home trinkets from your far-flung travels is part of the fun of going. They will make interesting gifts and souvenirs of your travels for years to come. Some travelers buy more than others, and some buy a lot more. As long as you have the money and can get them home, why not? I've met a few regular travelers who sometimes swear off shopping in an endeavor to enjoy a "trinket-free" trip. It is a noble sentiment, but for many, it's as difficult as traveling without a camera. That's a good reason to leave a little extra space in your pack (ha!), and plan ahead for your safe mail outlets.

The more you travel, the more particular you will become about the kinds of souvenirs you buy. We would like to think that this shows a growing sense of good taste in exotic trinkets. When you first get off the plane, everything looks new and interesting. Nowdays, many of the handicrafts are made specifically for your consumption, and some of them are meant to last at least until you leave town. The crude wooden dolls sold in Kenya resemble the traditional ones, but they are covered with shoe-polish to make the wood look like old hardwood. Aside from aesthetics, the polish will get all over your hands, and ruin anything you put it next to.

After you have spent some time exploring a country and its culture, you will have a much better idea of what are traditional, or at least representative, arts and crafts. When you discover a special craftsman in a traditional village, you will know that you have found a souvenir that will be both authentic and personally meaningful, even though you weren't really "shopping" at the time.

After the following discussions, you may imagine that I am a mad shopper, but I'm not. I spend enough time in each country to get a good idea of the type, quality, and price of handicrafts, without doing a lot of serious shopping. In fact, I avoid browsing through tourist shops unless I know what I want. I get many of my shopping ideas from observing what the locals actually use, or what other travelers have bought. When I decide that I'm interested in a particular kind of trinket, then I go shopping seriously, armed, hopefully, with some solid information on price and quality. Otherwise, I'm just as much at the mercy of those merchants as any other tourist.

Far be it from me to tell you what kind of souvenirs to buy, but of course, I do have a few suggestions. Clearly, articles that are easy to carry make good purchases for travelers. Flat items like woven materials, scarves, sarongs, batik paintings, woven bags, and T-shirts are easy to pack and to mail in a small space with no damage. Even temple rubbings on rice paper can be ironed out later on. Posters and prints, while flat, light, and cheap, must be protected from damage and wrinkling. When I do buy posters, I find that they suffer less damage if I just fold them in four, instead of trying to keep them rolled up and crease-free. Mailing such items home immediately in a mailing tube is the best solution, but not often practical. Jewelry, beads, and gemstones are also easy to carry without damage, and are among the most popular souvenirs. Bulkier clothing, like sweaters and heavy shirts, is easy to pack but can take up quite a bit of space.

The real dilemmas arise with the beautiful wood-carvings of Bali, the carpets of a dozen countries, and hundreds of other fascinating gifts, each one of which could take up half of your pack. You just can't carry bulky items like these very far, and the best policy is to send them home immediately or forget about them. If it is something really important to you, you will take the trouble to send it home. But when you go shopping, keep in mind the impracticality of carrying (and in many cases, mailing) such goods, and try to limit your tastes accordingly. Try to leave such splurges to the end of your trip, or at least near a decent post office.

Unique items of local clothing and jewelry are something that you won't find anywhere else, and make good souvenirs that will remind you of your experiences. You can even wear some of them around. Don't expect your friends to be impressed just because it comes from a place you love. Among the "can't miss" gifts are interesting local scarves, the lighter the better. Women of any age can find a use for an attractive scarf. Jewelry is much more personal, (especially rings) but with a good assortment, you can get something for everyone. Men are so difficult to shop for; what can you buy them that they will actually use?

Let other travelers do some of your shopping for you. Notice the things that they have, ask them what they've bought, where they got it, how much they paid, and what they think make good souvenirs. Learn from the thousands of other shoppers out there, some of whom have more experience at this than you do. There are many exotic goods that you know very little about, and you will find plenty of travelers, (not to mention vendors) who will be happy to share their "expertise" with you. But be sure to measure their opinions against your own tastes and needs, and don't buy something just because someone tells you that it is a great bargain.

Black coral is unique, interesting, and valuable stuff; many travelers find it attractive or potentially profitable. It doesn't interest me much because it looks a lot like black plastic. In fact, the hawkers have to hold a flame under it to prove that it isn't plastic. The export of raw coral is usually prohibited, which only adds to its interest. Get some black coral jewelry if you like it, but be aware that many travelers have been cajoled into buying quantities of goods like this on the promise that it is a great value, even though they had little personal interest in it. (See Import Business, below)

Before you can decide how reasonable the prices are, you need to know what the local money is worth, in real terms. How many cheap meals or hotel rooms could you get for the price of that T-shirt, wooden necklace, or watermelon? Is that a reasonable amount for the vendor to receive, and for you to spend for those goods? It will take you at least a week to get a good feeling for just how much the local money is worth to you, and to the local people; anything you buy in the first week will likely be a splurge.

If you ever want to talk yourself into buying something, just figure out how much it costs in your money at home. But I warn you that this practice only leads down the road to over-indulgence. That's how the tourists spend all their money in two weeks; they keep telling each other how much it would cost at home. ("How much is that in Real Money?")  Try to judge the value of goods by local standards and don't buy just because they are cheap.

[Continued on next page...]

Randy's Travel Page ..... Shopping Table of Contents ........... Next Page
Randy Johnson's "Footloose and Fancy-Free in the Third World"
All text Copyright © 1992-2008, Randy R. Johnson.