A snapshot of cross-cultural life: "He already knows..." (Bargaining)

(Genesis 23:3-16)

I was looking for electrical outlet adapters for my American devices, so that I can plug them in and charge them here at the guesthouse where I'm staying. So I walked into an odds and ends, part hardware store, part convenience store place downtown and saw what I was looking for. I selected five adapters and then the conversation went about like this:

Me: "How much?"
Cashier: "125,000 rupiah."
Me: "How much each?"
Her: "25,000 each"
Me (looks at price tag, it says 35,000, I say nothing)
Her daughter (looks at the price tag): "Oh, 35,000 each! 175,000"
Cashier: "Yeah, 175,000"
Me: "Wait, you already said 125,000!" (making a show of shuffling through bills in my wallet) "I don't think I have that much money."
Cashier (smiling broadly): "He already knows [our bargaining culture]! Ok, you can have that tea for free thrown in."

In the west, in most situations (not all, used cars and real-estate being notable exceptions), we're used to living with fixed prices in which the cost of an item is pegged fairly strictly to the value of that item, regardless of who's selling or buying it or the ability of the buyer to pay and the need of the seller for payment. But in much of the world the inherent value of the item is only one facet of the price that ends up getting paid. Each buying situation is negotiating not just the inherent value of the item but also a hopefully fair balance of the buyer's ability to pay and the seller's need for payment. While it doesn't always work out this way in practice, the underlying unwritten assumption is that richer buyers should pay higher prices and richer sellers should accept smaller profit margins and give better deals to poorer buyers. The fairness and justice of such a mindset and what the Bible has to say about fairness along these lines (verses our idea of "everybody pays the same price for the same item and that's how we ensure fairness") would be a fascinating conversation that I'd love to have with anybody who wants to reach out to me, but suffice to say it comes with a cultural script, roles in a drama that buyer and seller have to play in the exchange. And you have just seen a sample.

For another sample (and this is also something that would be fun to discuss), see the interaction between Ephron the Hittite and Abraham in Genesis 23:3-16. Questions, comments? Use the green microphone button in the bottom right-hand corner of the website to record a voice message, which may even be featured on a future podcast episode, or send a message through our contact page.

[Update since publishing: Proverbs 20:14 removed from the references above, because without explanation it seemed to imply that it was Biblical support for certain ways of communicating that actually merit more careful discussion rather than just throwing a verse up there with no explanation. Stay tuned for more on this later...]