The aisles of Best Buy, Home Depot, and other retail stores are beginning to look more like a Turkish bazaar. Haggling is back, baby, at least based on some initial reports we’ve heard. People are talking about being able to say to walk into a retail store and say to sales people, “Hmm, I like, but it’s a little more than I was hoping to pay. Can’t you do any better on the price?” It seems the salesmen have some wiggle room on the price, especially if you opt for the extended warranty package. I’m helping out a reporter at a large publication, so if this has happened to you and you’re willing to share your story on the record, drop me a line at ben@consumerist.com or leave a comment along with your contact info.
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@sue_me: Err… that WAS haggling, just on shorter, less flexible terms.
Women haggle all the time: it’s called flirting.
Well, my point is I refuse to do the back and forth thing. It’s so beneath my dignity. I have a price I’m willing to pay. If you can’t make it work, I’m going someplace else. Period. Case closed. No ifs, ands or buts. If they come back with a counteroffer, I’m going someplace else. I’m more like, “bidding”.
Haggling requires that you’re willing to concede to make the deal. I’m saying, if you can’t make the deal work, you don’t want my business badly enough, and therefore I’m leaving. I’ll be mentioning up front that my terms are not negotiable. It’s not a negotiation. It’s a final, take it or leave it offer.
@StevieD: Thanks for the offer to help, but I already talked to them. I’m in Tacoma, so it’s really not that far. The owner said he’d load it up on his flatbed and spend a few hours with me going over the operation procedure. Gave me his cell phone number too, in case I have in problems.
I like businesses that gives me the illusion of control. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy. This is “The Consumerist”, after all.
I worked at Lowe’s for a while (and will be again for a short while). I can go on the record saying that I had customers haggle with me, sometimes successfully. For smaller ticket items I wouldn’t go for it, it’s just stupid. But for people wanting to buy a lot, or a big ticket item, I would sometimes give them a slight discount. The most I could give without manager approval was around 10%, and with the average profit margin being around 30-35%, Lowe’s definitely doesn’t lose out on anything. The biggest thing that I haggled with customers on is plants. Many times they would start to look kind of ragged, considering how hard it is to keep all the plants looking really nice. Those we would often discount if the customer asked.
It really bugged me though when people would expect me to give them discounts on anything they asked for. If I say I can’t or won’t give a discount, then I won’t. Stop asking. There have been a few times when I’ve had to get a manager to come over and tell people that they can’t authorize a discount.
@Michael Belisle:
Tacoma?
No wonder you wouldn’t want to buy from me. I am East Coast. You do you realize that the factory for the widgemaster 3000 is in Portland. No, not Portland Maine, Portland Oregon. So freight costs are far cheaper to the West Coast than the East Coast.
The important fact is that you got the widgemaster 3000. I am sure you will be happy with it. My wife really likes hers.
I WILL NOT haggle with customers. I work at a corporation so I don’t have to waste my time haggling over prices set by my corporation. Don’t like it, too bad, we don’t have competition and our goods are branded. You shop our store because you love our brand. The price is NON-NEGOTIABLE.
I don’t haggle when I shop because it’s bad karma for my retail job. Also, I’m not going to dick around for 10 minutes to save 10%. It’s worth my money to be able to walk in, pay, and leave, with no dicking over the price.
Funny I love haggling except for cars.
Of course I know that you can haggle at some places but not at others. I try to shop where I can haggle if I want to. I wish more stores would be willing to discount me half of what they pay to the CC company for paying with cash.
I don’t like this. I’m not a haggler as I have no idea the inherent value of anything. And I’d hate to insult someone. I work for myself, and if someone were to hear my hourly rate and then try to half it, I’d think they were a cheap bastard and tell them to go eff themselves thank you very much.
I’m not a haggler… I just get too embarrassed about it but my grandpa is the master. I’m not sure he’s ever paid full price for anything outside of Aldi’s. He’s had brand new loaded Cadillacs that he’s gotten at insane prices.
I’ve only haggled on accident – my husband and I found the perfect wedding band at a jewelry store and it wasn’t even that pricey but we had to wait a couple more weeks to get it so we could pay cash. We went to leave the store and they offered us a $175 markdown. SOLD!
I have gone to Best Buy before with a coupon for a big ticket item that doesn’t apply to that item and said, “I’d like this TV and I’d like to use this coupon” and gotten the discount. But I don’t think of that as haggling because I would have bought the TV not matter what.
I tried to do a price match at BestBuy to walmart for an Xbox 360 controller. I had a gift card so I wanted to buy from BestBuy, but I noticed Walmart had the price at $40 online, while it was $50 at BestBuy.
So I went in there and tried to price match, but I didn’t realize that Walmart’s price online doesn’t match in store. The salesman called local Walmarts and they only offered the controller for $50.
I said thanks, but I’ll just buy elsewhere and was going to save my gift card for something else. The salesman offered me it for $45 and I agreed. Not a huge price jump or anything, but still 10% off was nice.
When attempting to negotiate price for products that have “extended warranties” available, ALWAYS go for the “extended warranty” and then just cancel it the next day. Also, when attempting to negotiate for cell phones, ALWAYS buy additional options (cases, car chargers, holster, etc.) and then just return those items the next day. Also, when buying cell phones, ALWAYS sign up for the high text messaging plans, data plans, etc. and then just cancel those plans the next day.
Another good tip is to buy electronics (DVD players, etc.), return them the next day – after opening them – claiming that they do not work – refuse a replacement by suggesting that oyu’ve lost faith in the brand because it was “dead on arrival”. Then have a friend go in the following day to buy it – it will be marked down because it was a return.
Whenever you have a pizza delivered, call within 10 minutes of delivery and claim that the pizza was burned and not edible. You will get a certificate for a free pizza.
Another good tip it when you shop for clothing, always carry with you a washable ink marker and slightly markup the article of clothing that you’re interested in. Hide any other on display items that are identical in size. Before buying it, call to the clerk’s attention that the article is stained. Swapping it out for another will be impossible – since you hid the others. You can always get some money off the price. Then, all you need to do is wash the stain off after you get it home.
Feigning heart attacks (severe angina) is a good way to get a free meal at a restaurant.
At outdoor food stands (e.g., hot dog stands) cough on the food – some phlegm is always good to spew on the food – then negotiate on the price of the hot dog.
There are two stores I take my wife to, one is owned by this really nice guy from India and the other by a Lebeonese family. They’re mark ups are ridiculous but if nobody else is in the store they practically give it away. All I have to do is look moderately interested and they’ll just ask, “OK, how much you got?”
No thanks. I prefer the time honored tradition of trading livestock and family members for game systems and TVs.
I ran into an old friend that says he went into Home Depot and they had a clearance on a reciprocating saw that was marked down to $39. He asked how many they had and the guy said they had 20 of them, and that they are on clearance to try and get rid of that model. He said he would give $400 for all 20 of em. The guy came back with his manager and they went to the customer service desk…a few keystrokes later…he said OK! Needless to say he is an Ebayer.