Men Vs Women: Who reigns supreme when it comes to haggling?

In Satyajit Ray's detective series Feluda, there is a story called "Tintorettor Jishu," where Feluda and Lalmohanbabu go to Hong Kong to solve a mystery. 

After they finish the job, they have some time to spare before their 10 pm return flight to India. Feluda proposes that whether they buy something or not, they can at least visit a couple of shops there. Lalmohanbabu says that he wants to buy a pocket calculator

This is when a Bangali expatriate named Purnendu Babu wants to take them to a familiar store. Because not only are the goods there good, but there is also scope to bargain.

A tiny tidbit really, but it captures well the Bangali psyche when it comes to making purchases. 

Bangalis love to bargain – be it potatoes, pumpkins, clothes, shoes, watches or a mere calculator. No matter where they go, they will bargain for everything they buy. They will even travel from one market to another to find the best price. 

In Dhaka's New Market, Gausia and Noorjahan Plaza, the scenes of Bangalis engaged in the vigorous exercise of bargaining are always aplenty. 

In the end, the buyer and seller come to a compromise, saying, "Let's agree to disagree." They don't need to read big books on economics to do this. They don't need to know about the law of supply and demand. Yet, they are quite apt in the matter of bargaining.

Now the question is, who is better at bargaining - men or women? What would you say?

We ventured into the alleyways of New Market to find out. We spoke to both buyers and sellers in search of answers. From the New Market intersection, moving towards Gausia, Yakub Market, Noorjahan Plaza, and Dhanmondi Hawkers Market, there are rows and rows of shops. 

The customers here are from all walks of life, from the lower-middle class to the middle class and the upper-middle class. There are young and old, men and women. 

On a recent visit, I met Afia Musfika Shrabasti, a student and a regular New Market customer for two years, in front of a shop. She was buying some decorations. While she was haggling, I started speaking to her. 

Who do you think is better at haggling, men or women? Without losing a beat, she said women. She also explained how she likes to haggle. She confidently said no matter what price the seller asks, she haggles for one-third of the asking price. Then they settle on a more or less reasonable price.

At the bustling Noorjahan Market (just across the road from Dhaka College) there's always a large crowd of shoppers throughout the year. But the crowd becomes much larger in the run-up to Eid. 

In my quest to find out who is better at haggling, I asked the same question over and over again. However, each customer had a different answer or perspective.

On the sidewalk in front of Noorjahan Market, two brothers were seen buying shirts and jeans. I asked one of the brothers, Saif Al Mahmud Naim: Are women or men better at haggling?

He replied, "I bought four pants, four shirts, and three T-shirts. I've been walking around from New Market to Noorjahan Plaza for an hour and a half, and I'm starting to get a headache. I bought them all at a bargain price. 

But I think I could have bought them for even less if I had a woman with me. No matter how crowded it is or what they are buying, women can be patient when shopping. They don't give up easily, even when they get tired of haggling. So I think women are better at haggling."

However, a salesman named Saiful said that it's not about being a man or a woman. In the case of haggling, the key is experience. A man who has been shopping in the market for many years can have an idea of what the price should be. So he is ahead of his female counterpart as a customer.

"Defining who will be a good negotiator is tough," said Dr Serajul Hoque, professor at the Marketing Department, Dhaka University, "It depends on a couple of things – the market, the product, the lifestyle and psychology of the consumer etc. 

The sellers, who are primarily male, are great at determining the characteristics of the buyer. The way you talk, the way you walk or present yourself, they will notice and quote a price accordingly."

Near the second gate of New Market, I met Mohammad Shukkur Mia, a hawker. He sells a variety of useful items, such as clothesline clips, mothballs, tea strainers and dishwashing tools, by walking around and calling out his wares. 

Shukkur Mia said that if you send a man with Tk20,000 to go shopping, he will not be able to return the money. On the other hand, if you give a woman the same amount of money, she will be able to return a few thousand taka after buying things. This is because women are better at calculating the price.

Although some customers said that men are also good at haggling, the sellers did not agree. They sided with women when it came to haggling.

In the broad scheme of things, there has been research in the Global North which found that women in fact fare worse in negotiations – from salary to buying a car. "There's another reason women don't get more credit for being good negotiators: the influence of data collected decades ago," wrote Bloomberg columnist Sarah Green Carmichael on International Women's Day this year.  

Sarah argued that the most well-known findings on women and negotiation – and one that continues to be widely cited – are probably those of the 2003 seminal book Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide, "but a lot has changed."

Back to Gausia Market. As soon as you enter it, you see shops selling sarees and salwar kameez. There are also various home improvement items. Here I met a Turkish gentleman named Arkun. I learned that his in-laws are from Bangladesh. He had come shopping with his wife and mother-in-law. 

Arkun was delighted and praised his mother-in-law's bargaining skills. He said that neither he nor his wife understands the art of bargaining but his mother-in-law understands it very well. He also enjoys watching her haggle.

We continued talking about bargaining with the various buyers and sellers. There are many opinions. Some openly admit that men are not good at haggling. And some refuse to accept it. However, as much as the men praised the women's haggling skills, the women did not praise the men's haggling skills.

Another customer, Shahid Ahmed, is a first-year university student. According to him, in the context of our country, many women are still homemakers. They don't have economic freedom in that sense. So when our mothers go to buy something, they have to do a lot of calculations. That's why they have to learn to haggle, whether they like it or not.

However, his companion, Samarpita Saha, disagreed. She said that men are also good at it and that there are men who understand the tricks of haggling.

Additionally, in times of inflation, can we expect to see changed behaviour among bargainers and hagglers at the markets? "Yes. During inflation, as purchasing power decreases, consumers tend to bargain more," replied Dr Hoque.   

From Nilkhet to New Market Gate, I spoke to around 20 people about haggling. It became apparent that Bangalis are not only proficient in bargaining but also in storytelling. In some cases, these question-and-answer sessions led to spirited debates between male and female customers. 

If one said that women are the best at haggling, the other person immediately said, why not men? What a dilemma! Although the women fared much better than their male counterparts in this customer-seller survey, let's leave the decision to the reader.

TBS' Kamrun Naher contributed to this story, which was originally written in Bangla and translated by TBS' Nasif Tanjim.