Buying sunglasses in Brazil requires a degree in psychological bargaining tactics

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In Brazil buying a pair of children's sunglasses requires an elaborate bargaining ritual complete with coffee service and multiple sales staff, as London School of Economics professor Christopher Sandmann discovered during a family vacation.

Writing on The Holdup Problem, Sandmann describes entering a high-end optical shop with his two-year-old son, where they were greeted by no fewer than six employees. One held the door, another walked them to a table, a third shook hands, while others offered water, lemonade, and coffee. "By now, I had lost track of the total number of vendors present," Sandmann writes, "but I was on a first-name basis with three of them."

The real education came during price negotiations. The initial price tag of £100 (700 Reais) for toddlers' metal(!) sunglasses was the starting point for a series of offers and counteroffers. The key insight? Brazilian vendors have mastered a proven psychological tactic — they restore their bargaining power by deferring the final decision to an absent store owner via phone call. This transforms the adversarial negotiation into a collaborative effort, with buyer and seller suddenly allied in hoping for the owner's approval.

"Calling the owner is a clever tactic," Sandmann explains. "First, it ties their hands; they will not call their boss twice on my behalf. It is also psychologically astute in that it turns [the vendor] and me into allies. Previously, all the pampering with coffee and lemonade had glossed over the fact that we were engaged in a tug-of-war over the price."

[Via The Browser]