The Art of Bargaining

Let me go ahead and give a little caveat that by no means am I an expert bargainer; I would rather just skip over the haggling and get right to a fair price.

However, this weekend with Paul out of town, a friend and I decided to head over to the Grand Bazaar for a little bit of rug shopping - the whammy of all bargaining experiences. Rug shopping is a big deal here - tons of shops in the bazaar and other shopping areas offering up old rugs, new rugs, silk rugs, cotton rugs, kilims, tapestries, you name it.

First time rug buyers - successful day of shopping

Here's an amateur's advice after one day of rug shopping - good luck!

1. When they offer you a chai, take them up on it; it may take awhile so might as well enjoy it. Elma chai is my favorite.

2. Have an idea in mind of what type of materials or colors you like, otherwise they very well may show you every rug in the shop (which may not a bad thing if you have lots of time)

3. Don't expect to be able to haggle them down in one or two tries. It will go back and forth and back and forth. They will take it down off the wall, show it to you up close, tell you what it's really worth or how much it would cost in the US. When they ask you a fair price, go below what you would pay, but you don't want to offend them either. And you will have to stick to your guns.

4. Be patient. In 15 minutes, we talked a guy down nearly 2,000. You have to be willing to a) take it with you right then (this can sometimes help with lowering the price) or b) walk away to the next carpet guy down the hall.

I wasn't planning on buying a rug, but we had a great carpet guy who friends had bought carpets from and he gave us a good group deal.

Can't wait to get the rug into the apartment!

 According to the carpet guy, I am the proud owner of a 70 year old caucasian rug