Bargaining for things, yea or nay?

Great Debates
1

Personally, I hate bargaining for anything. As a rule, I absolutely refuse to do it. When I walk into a shop, I will look for the price or ask the salesperson the price of the item. When the salesperson quotes a price, that’s the price.

If the salesperson asks me, **“How much would you give me for it?” ** I will walk out the door. I am the customer. **This is not my job to price your items. ** I don’t know how much the price of said item is. The salesperson needs to tell me how much they want for said item, and if it is too expensive, I walk out the door. I have had many sales people chase me trying to get me back yelling out lower prices that go lower as I move away from their store. If the salesperson would have offered a fair price that she wanted for the item, she/he could have made a sale.

I understand houses and cars are two items that one has to bargain for. I have never bought a new car, but the idea of sitting with a car salesman, having to feign interest on something I like, and then have to haggle with the SOB, with him saying “That’s a bit low, but I’ll see what the manager has to say…” bit. Honestly, this would be more painful than getting sodomized by a porcupine who bites.

It’s insults my intelligence that car dealers mark up their stock and expect their customers to go through this routine, and waste so much time dicking around the dealership to hammer out an acceptable deal on a price that should be the f’ing sticker price in the first place!

Why don’t we just bargain for everything? Bargain over cans of corn in the supermarket “49 cents! I’ll give you 29 cents, how 'bout it mister?” Why don’t we bargain with our hairstylist? “$20 bucks, too high, I’ll give you $2!”

I wish people would QUIT BARGAINING. Just stop doing it. Our lives are short, why waste one’s time arguing with a stranger? If people would quit haggling, there would be fairer prices for goods and services. Prices would naturally fall a bit by themselves.

So, what is the upside of bargaining?

2

Yeah, they would fall a bit higher.

Also, car and house prices are naturally prone to haggling. Car dealers take risks in stocking up and can’t afford to have “old” cars sitting around taking up space and cash when a new model is coming soon that costs as much or even less. This applies to almost anything costing more than a few hundred dollars, by the way.

Also: so how did you decide what to pay for your second hand car, then?

3

It pisses me off as well, but wont be going as long as both sides are dishonest about the situation, ie how much they’re willing to pay and how much they’re willing to charge, and emotional pressure being able to have an influence in both directions.

The internet has been a great help in my view, in that you can shop around instantly rather than having to ring around or the like, so now its more about cars and houses than everyday life at least.

4

I think bargaining makes sense for big-ticket items. Bargaining at a supermarket would be a horrible idea. We buy too many small items, far too frequently, to want to research each and every item every time we purchase. The time and effort wouldn’t be worth the few pennies we might save. And can you imagine trying to have auctions for the dozens of items you buy at a supermarket? Do you wait around until milk is up for bidding? Do I have to sit through the produce section stuff before we get to dairy products?

But cars or houses, we don’t buy that often. We’re more willing to put in time and effort at getting a good deal. I suspect that it’s possible to get a better price on an item that is open for negotiation. Whether you actually do get a better price is up to you. If you’re lazy, you’ll get taken.

For a big-ticket item like a house or car, I’d rather be able to haggle over the price than just a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ approach. In such an illiquid market I suspect the suppliers would collude to keep prices artificially high.

5

I do not like haggling, either. Maaaaybe on big-ticket stuff (house, high-end/new car, etc) but for smaller-cost things -> name the price and I evaluate and then buy or walk away. Simple and non-offensive.

My wife and mom-in-law make/sell craft things, usually at weekend/holiday craft ‘shows’ in parks and auditoriums. They price things as low as they can, and sometimes have things ‘below-cost’ to simply get rid of it as more is to be made. Its as much a hobby for fun/socialization as it is expectation of profit-margin on time/cost of material. A surprisingly high, but not a majority to be clear, number of ‘customers’ will often try and talk price down to ridiculous level, and when they are very politely told what the price is, they get offended. Literally offended/emotionally perturbed for what we consider nickel & dime products. I’m talking about someone saying “I’ll give ya a quarter” when they were told the price is a buck and a half or comparable levels of pricings. Wife has had things thrown back at her with a “well, you can keep your shit if you think its so wonderful!” when I know she spent an hour (or two) making the hair-scrunchie/doggie-shirt or me at fabric store getting the needed things (etc etc). More often its much less unpleasant of a “No, thanks” and after these folks look around, they see that our prices are as low as the others’ stuff, or much lower many times. Sold to them then at original price. I’ve come too close for my comfort to ‘escorting away’ highly rude persons that demand getting a price-reduction because “Its how its done, you stupid people!!”, so I do not sit around at those ‘fairs’ anymore. My ladies are adept at handling such persons, but there is a fair % of folks that seem to think it is inherent in the crafting world. A number of folks even say “Its the law, you dummies!”. (???)

I’ve mentioned to my wife/MIL that it would be interesting to try something like having a sign that says “make offer”. If too low, you get one more chance to be close to what is mutually reasonable/told to what is told the expected price-range is or ~“no sale-have a nice day-too busy to talk more”. If the buyer says a price higher than what would’ve been posted, sale done, happiness to all! I am so curious to this as a social experiment to see if the ‘bargainers’ will put the money where their mouth is with respectful offers or if the persons generally just want to hear a price then pay less to think they got a ‘deal’ by prevailing at a negotiation, so to speak. I do agree that having a high price up-front is likely to have folks just walk by and not even give face-time. There’s probably a fine-line at what products/prices are considered ‘must-bargain’ things, but I do not want to have to evaluate if that is what is happening at a store or with persons selling things. Garage sales are certainly bargain oriented - that’s a given, imho.

An interesting thing I heard a few years ago: Son was buying a new or used car depending on financing, etc. First car purchase, so I went along. He saw a used but practically new truck he loved. Salesman came out, was told we were interested. “Come in and lets start the paperwork”. I said “No. How much is the cost?”. He would NOT tell the price, and did not even know to be honest. I made it clear that the price came first, and bullshit began to spew forth from his mouth. This was a Chevy dealership, fwiw. I was getting a bit upset and stepped outside as son started filling in papers. After a few minutes, son realized how he was being played, and walked out. Price was going to based on what he could pay, not value of vehicle, per se.

My wife’s sister’s husband is mid/upper mgmt at big dealership(s) in Okie City and I mentioned this to him the next day as we talked about what he could do for son. It still stuns me that he said “Salesman doesn’t need to know the price - that’s my job”. So yeah, car dealerships are bargaining centers, no doubt at all (other than ‘no-dicker sticker’ places existing).

6

I suppose it’s a natural consequence of the retailer not wanting to sell something for less than the customer would be willing and able to pay, and the customer not wanting to pay more than the retailer would be willing and able to sell for. That’s also why things go on sale or get discounted rather than always being the same price.

On the other hand, it seems nowadays more car dealers are advertising specific prices on specific cars (online, in the newspaper, etc.), and they’d want to advertise a low price to begin with to get customers into the dealership, rather than start high and allow themselves to be haggled down.

7

It depends where I am. If I am in Yemen (where I am now) I bargain. If I am in the US, I usually do my research before I walk in the door (assuming it is a big purchase) and buy at what is the best price I can find. More often than not, I just buy online from the vendor with the cheapest price, I guess this could be considered a form of bargaining.

8

If someone asks for a price and you don’t give a price, you fucked up. It’s simple sales technique.

The correct answer is benefit -> price -> benefit -> accept

How much for a hamburger?
This delicious hamburger only costs X, and that includes any condiments you want. Would you like to eat it here or have it to go?

I hate buying from incompetent salespeople. All salespeople should know these basic techniques.
The only alternative where it is OK not to give a price is when you ask specific, relevant questions that will influence the price.

9

Nonsense. The seller has misjudged his customer. In fact, the seller really screwed up because he didn’t even make an effort to entice the customer, as in, “Normally this suit is $500, but it’s on sale this week for $400. I might even be able to convince the manager to give you a better deal… what do you think?”

10

Normally this suit is $500, but it’s on sale this week for $400

To the seller, I don’t care the recent pricing history of an item either. If you could sell the suit for $500 bucks, it would be $500 bucks. Obviously, you can’t move the 500 dollar suit, so you make it a 400 dollar suit.

11

What, you reject the notion that someone might want to, you know, SELL something to you? As in, make it enticing? Talk about the products attractive qualities?

I’m with you on the “I hate bargaining” part. But to say there’s something wrong with a salesman trying to make his product attractive? Sheesh! Next you’re going to be saying that Amazon shouldn’t put attractive pictures of its goods on its website! “If I wanted to know what something looks like, I’d have you take a Polaroid picture of it and air-mail it to me on the 4:30 auto-gyro! And get off my lawn!” :slight_smile:

I’m just kidding, of course. In all seriousness, knowing past markdowns of items is useful for a buyer. My favorite sport coat is this cashmere number that I bought for about $300. It is exquisite cashmere. It originally sold for something like $1,500, and was marked down because of a tiny flaw in a seam. Had the store not notified me that it was marked down so much, I probably would not have been tipped off to the defect, which for whatever my decision to buy or not to buy might have been, is a good thing to know about.

12

Well, for some people it is fun. Ever go to garage sales? For those that hate shopping, it makes it a little more intellectually engaging, and you might walk away thinking you accomplished something.

Also, what if the seller says what will you give me for this and the buyer gives a price way above what the seller expected? Or the same if a buyer gets a way lower price than she expected? Both would not have happened without bargaining.

13

The last time I had someone try to bargain with me I did not play along.

Item was $75. Customer said, “I’ll give you $55”.
I replied, “$80”.

He got flustered, pointed out that he was expecting a number between his offer and the original asking price. I explained that the price went up to reflect the time I was wasting listening to his offer. He handed over a credit card and was charged the original asking price, but he wasn’t thrilled.

14

How are things in Yemen these days? We were last there about 3 years ago and have tried to find time to go back… always a bit unstable there tho. I bargained for everything there from headscarves to water. One of my favorite places.

15

I hear there are many parts of the world where bargaining/haggling are absolutely expected and both parties seem to enjoy it.

In the U.S. bargaining has traditionally been more unusual apart from buying cars and houses, though it’s popular for used items (I think it’s pretty common for more expensive items at flea markets and garage sales to generate lower offers than the listed price).

I personally dislike haggling over car prices because car salesmen/managers are wretched thieving scum, and making house offers is not fun either because real estate agents are not much better than car salesmen and property owners get offended easily if you try to get them down from unrealistic figures. The cheaper stuff can be fun though.

16

I love haggling. People bring me along when they anything from cars to pianos.

Sometimes, the juice usually isn’t worth the squeeze for one side or another. I have haggled down the price of Hugo Boss suits by a few hundred bucks at department stores, I have haggled down the price of comforter sets by a hundred bucks at supermarkets but noone will engage me when I try to haggle on things like avocados even though it is obvious that these avocados have a few days left before they start to spoil.

For the same reason why stores use coupons. Some people will pay the full price and others will only buy if they have a coupon. Think of haggling as a coupon that takes more interpersonal skill to use.

I got my car for about $3000 below the Edwards.com average price. I got a a $70,000 Steinway piano for $70,000 but I got zero percent financing for the first year and 5% financing for the next 4 years PLUS free delivery and tunings (they originally offered me 5 years at 9% plus a pretty exhorbitant charge for delivery and tunings). I got a bunch of glass sculptures in Murano for far far less than asking price.

If you are asking what advantage it offers to the merchant, the merchant will sometime run into a customer like you who will pay the full retail asking price but they can still make money by selling to people like me for just a little bit above their marginal cost.

17

New Saturn cars were sold 100% with no bargaining. They had 1 price that you paid or else you did not buy the car. A lot of people liked that system so it helped Saturn sales. For used cars CarMax does not haggle on prices which also attracts people who don’t like to bargain.

18

In my jurisdiction, there is a truth in advertising law that says you cannot say a suit is normally $500 unless you actually sold the suit for $500 in the last year unless you state that the $500 price “does not reflect actual sales”

19

Err… that’s not a contradiction to what I said, and I agree with you. :slight_smile:

Although I wouldn’t include the latter part unless the customer seemed to be hesitant about the price.

20

Although this is fun and satisfying on a personal level it’s not something that will create a satisfied and loyal customer. A good sale means both parties are happy with the outcome. If you’re trying to build a relationship that is, if you don’t want to see, or don’t expect to see the customer again a win/lose negotiation is valid of course. Personally I prefer to work with win/win exclusively.