Like most travelers new to Istanbul, I feared I would be intimidated by the shop salesmen. I ended up having a delightful time bargaining with them, and was so grateful for the advice in my Eyewitness Guide because it took all of the anxiety out of it. Here's what they said to do:

If you have absolutely no interest in buying, compliment the beauty of the items and keep moving on. Smile, but keep moving! If you do have interest, don't feel pressured if you are whisked inside a shop once you express interest. Don't be surprised or pressured if he pulls numerous items off the shelves to show you. You will be offered tea. Accept the tea and don't feel pressured by it. Relax and enjoy the conversation. Say what you like and what you don't like. Eventually, ask for a good price. The price you are given is not what they expect to get! Be brave enough to offer half of that price. The owner/sales clerk will express offense at your counteroffer ("that is impossible!" etc), so raise your offer just a little. Then keep negotiating, and settle on a price about midway between your first offer and 2/3 of his original offer.

This advice made the process enjoyable for me. I'm not a big shopper, but I wanted to buy some scarves and some pillow covers, and I felt pleased with the prices I got, so that's all that matters, right? Oh, and another thing I did. Once we were close to settling on a price, I would agree, but only if they would thrown in "x item" as well (like, trade out one of the scarves for one of higher quality, or add in one of lower quality). When I hit my highest offer, I would smile, look them right in the eye and say, "That's a good price, and you know it." If they would not accept, I would thank them for their time, and move on to the next seller. Gosh knows, there are plenty of them!

Enjoy your trip to Istanbul.

Thanks for that information. I'm in the very early stages of planing a trip to Istanbul for next March. Do they bargain for purchases of all prices or only fairly expensive things? I'd heard about bargaining for things like carpets, but not small items likes scarves - or are you talking high quality expensive scarves?

Did you post a trip report - or any other information?

You can bargain for inexpensive items as well as the high-priced ones. If the item is fairly priced then there's not much room to bargain but you can get something taken off the price.

I didn't buy anything expensive so I would ask if the salesperson could do better and then take whatever they offered so I could move on to the next vendor.

What I hated is that the sales people didn't give any time to look and decide. Many were constantly talking and distracting me so I would move on since I couldn't really look undisturbed. I found that the vendors in the spice market were much more laid back than in the grand bazaar and enjoyed that experience more.

<<I wanted to buy some scarves and some pillow covers>>

Were they kilim pillow covers? Can you give an estimate of how much you had to pay?

Thanks.

Kilim Pillows: $5 to $8.

Hi

Yes you pretty much bargain for everything you buy irrespective of prices. TIP: Turkish traders will accept USD, euro or Turkish lira. But learn to use the lira. Turkish merchants are far better at converting non local currency than you are

<<Kilim Pillows: $5 to $8.>>

Thanks Michael, sounds like a good deal.

>kilim pillow covers $5 to $8<

You can buy $200 pillow covers. Price and quality vary at the Grand Bazaar.

You can buy $75K carpets at the Grand Bazaar.

You can buy a ruby ring at the GB for 30 thousand dollars.

The Grand Bazaar is not all dollar tile shops and souvenir shops.

Thingorjus

Also wanted to point out that you do not bargain at Western-style shops in Istanbul.

You will get funny looks if you try to bargain at Louis Vuitton.

There are also many shops on Istaklal Caddessi that you would not bargain at. Like Pasabahce, for example.

Thin