Imagine, to make one of the beaded mantras that appear in the photo, the original artisans of the Wiráxika communities (northern Jalisco) take up to six hours. That is, they could only produce a maximum of two per day.
Now imagine, they leave their communities to offer their jobs and come across phrases like: 'is it the least?', 'What's the cheapest?' or flat out the 'I give so much for this'. Sad no?
Haggling in our country is a common practice of both Mexican and foreign consumers with artisans; a great majority of the latter, from indigenous communities.
According to a survey of 285 artisans in central Mexico, carried out by the Artisans and Producers Network, found that between 85 and 90% of handicraft buyers insist that the price be lowered.
In addition, the bargaining that consumers ask for is not a minor thing, since on average it oscillates between 25 and 30% on the price.
That is, with the discount that consumers are asking for, they are erasing the profits that these products may leave, since if the craftsman accesses a maximum discount, he is only enough to reinvest in materials.
That is why I insist:
According to figures from the Encuesta Nacional de Consumo Cultural de México, 12 million people trade handicrafts in different ways and with different materials such as: glass, textiles, fabrics, stone or wood sculptures, paint, paper, cardboard and ceramics.
One of the reasons for haggling is that consumers are unaware of the work, expertise and time required to produce these products, in other words, they undervalue them.
To face this problem, the Red de Artesanos y Productores Manos Creativas in conjunction with the Mensajeros Urbanos organization, some time ago launched an anti-bargaining campaign focused on raising awareness among consumers regarding the social consequences of bargaining.
Watch this video:
The results of the campaign were that with this method, haggling decreased by 60%, since with the information given, buyers even offered to pay more for the piece.
With information of Verne.