> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bargaining in Thailand Is Fine and Haggling With Women Selling Food Is Not - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/bargaining-in-thailand-etiquette/ - Published: 2026-07-16T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T05:41:09.000Z - Description: The rules are simple, consistent, and almost nobody outside the country knows them. Getting them wrong costs you money or costs you a relationship. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Money & Costs A woman selling grilled chicken on a Bangkok street corner, alone, at eleven at night, looked at me and said a number. I offered less. She said a higher number. I offered the lower number again. We did this six times and I paid the first number. I had won about four baht and lost something I could not put a price on. Last verified 1 August 2026. ## Where bargaining is expected **Markets, specifically the wholesale and semi-wholesale markets,** where prices genuinely float and where the transaction is a negotiation by design. [Chatuchak](https://easythailandvisa.com/chatuchak-weekend-market-guide/), [Damnoen Sadeu](https://easythailandvisa.com/damnoen-sadeu-morning-market-bangkok/), the night markets, and the produce markets in the provinces. **Clothing and handicraft stalls with no price tag,** which is the signal in itself. A price written on the item means it is fixed. No tag means ask. **Taxis before you get in, and only in the sense of agreeing a destination price,** and this is where I would use an app instead every single time. **Tailoring, which is genuinely negotiable,** because a suit made to measure in Bangkok is a large ticket and a good [tailor](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-tailor-in-bangkok-what-you-need-to-know/) expects the conversation. **And the tourist shops near attractions, which is exactly where I would not, for reasons below.** ## Where it is not, and where it is insulting **Any shop with a displayed price.** That number is the number. Offering less is not clever, it is a small insult to a person who has already told you the answer. **Food stalls run by one woman, and especially at night,** which is the case that opens this article. The margin on a single serving of food sold by one person is a few tens of baht, and a negotiation is a request that they work for free. **Supermarkets, department stores, pharmacies, and anything with a barcode.** No exceptions, and staff genuinely do not have the authority. **Transport after the fare is agreed,** and especially refusing to pay a quoted meter fare on the argument that you started from further away. The meter is the meter. **And anything involving a** [**monk**](https://easythailandvisa.com/talking-to-monks-in-thailand/)**, which is worth stating separately because it is a hard cultural line rather than a social one.** You do not negotiate with a monk, you do not touch a monk, and the second one catches out far more visitors than the first. ## How the market actually works **Ask the price first and let them name it.** A price named by the other party is a number you can work with. A price named by you is an offer that is usually wrong. **Negotiate in small movements, not big ones.** A counter-offer of about a third below what was said is a normal opening. Halving it is a joke that stops being funny at the fourth repetition. **Understand that the first number is often not the first price.** In some markets it is a test of whether you are serious, and the real number appears at roughly the third exchange. **Get to a number and stop immediately, clearly and cheerfully,** because the entire skill is ending the transaction without anybody losing face. A deal closed with a smile is the correct outcome. A deal closed with your opponent sighing is a bad outcome at a good price. **Then pay in small notes without being asked, and do not make the change a problem.** ## The rules that are not about money **Never point your feet at a monk, at a Buddha image, or at people seated on the floor.** This is the single most consistent piece of etiquette in the country and it is enforced socially in a way that is impossible to ignore. **Never touch anyone's head,** including a child's, including as a joke, and never put your feet up on a seat where somebody is sitting. **Do not raise your voice to end a negotiation,** and in particular do not use volume as a tactic. The only person it changes is the one across the table. **And remember that you are negotiating with a person, not a system.** Somebody's grandmother is behind that stall and she has a cost of goods and a rent and a day that started at four in the morning, and all of that is in the price you are arguing about. ## Where the tourist markup is worse **The highest prices in Thailand are not dishonest, they are location pricing,** and the lesson is not about bargaining skills, it is about walking ten minutes away from the temple. **A shop with a queue of other visitors at it is charging what the market will bear and the walk is worth more than any negotiation technique.** You can get most of the same product a third of the way up the road for a third less. **And the two places where the markup is indefensible,** are the fake gem shops and the ones that offer you a "special deal" on the way out of a clothing shop. Neither is a bargaining problem, and the Tourist Police number we have written about applies to both. **More on this** - [Your Bank Called to Say the Card in Thailand Was Captured,](https://easythailandvisa.com/atm-and-card-fraud-in-thailand/) - [Thai Gold Is Cheaper Than Gold and the Reason Is a Refusal](https://easythailandvisa.com/buying-gold-in-thailand/) - [The 30+30+30 Lease You Are Being Sold Is No Longer Legal](https://easythailandvisa.com/buying-property-in-thailand-foreigner-lease-rules/) - [How to Move Money Without Losing a Fifth of It](https://easythailandvisa.com/moving-money-in-and-out-of-thailand/) - [When to Stop Converting the Baht in Your Head](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-baht-conversion-mindset/)