Some observations on haggling.

[Mark Healey]

First the incident that caused these ruminatins.

A woman comes in with her son to get a copy of Heart of Darkness for a class of his. The kid picks a Norton Critical edition. They are usually more annotaion than original text, lots of fresh copywritable material. It's U$6.00, list price U$16.90. She starts in on the patter that is usually followed by a request for a discount. This goes on for a couple of minutes with me giving generic polite replies. I then lost it and said "For gods sake! You're not buying a house". She stares at me for a moment and hands me her credit card. I finsih the transaction.

I then step out for a smoky treat (yeah, I stole that line from someone on this list) and she is out there telling her husband the story, incredulous that I got mad at her.

This was a white woman with an east European or Mediterranean accent.

And this is my observation. People from third world countries are brought up to believe that strangers are out to screw you over, so you better screw them over first and that the only people you can trust are your close relatives. They assume that the first price quoted is calculated to give the seller room to come down in a haggle.

I've never had this problem with Germans, Scandinavians, Englishmen or people from countries settled largely by the English, the Dutch, the Japanese or Americans excluding New Yorkers. I have no direct experience but I would bet that the Quebecians are far more like third worlders than anglophone Canadians.

I wish everybody was as polite as the Japanese. I wish I was. They make Canadians look like drunken hillbillies.

Am I the only one who has noticed this?

[ArenaBoy]

No, I have dealt with immigrants whose kids often apoligize for their parents behavior because of their lifestyle and I perfectly understand it. Some habits will stick with you no matter where you go when you leave your home. But yeah, I've had a guy who wanted to keep his VIP pass and I explained that he gets to keep his ticket, his daughter thankfully explained this to him as we were getting nowhere.

[Kiwi]

Ive had people from everywhere haggle, some ethnicities more than others, I dont think its a "your out to screw me" thing, I think its just a cultural thing, in some countries around the world, you haggle...for almost everything. Usually little old ladies try and find an excuse, like a tiny insignicifant little fault that you wouldnt notice if you hadnt gone over it with a fine toothed comb

but the most common excuse is "heh gotta try"

Doesnt make it any less annoying though.

[ThinMick]

I have been told that when one shops at the open air markets in Turkey, there are three kinds of prices: the foreigner price, the turkish price, and the friends price. The friend who passed this along had learned firsthand, living in Turkey and looking like a Viking, that the easiest way to get the Turkish price was to roll his eyes and call bullshit on the merchant in Turkish. Apparently, speaking the language well makes you the next best thing to a native.

But, yeah, Turkey is one of those countries where you're expected to haggle, and things are frequently priced accordingly. Haggling sometimes involves several hours and a pot of tea, if it's on something very expensive, like rugs or furniture.

[Gurndigarn]

Haggling is somewhat expected in a junkyard. I happened to work in one for a while. The story my boss loved was when he was doing a bit of wholesaling with another yard dealer, and had a customer try to deal on a door handle. The price he was quoted was five bucks-- not a bad price, by the way. But at that price, you expect the thing to be used. Not in perfect shape. If you don't like it, guess what the dealer's going to charge for a new one, right?

Not this guy. "But it's... it's... scratched!"

The owner says "Let me see that." He looks at it. "Yup. I can't sell anything in that condition to you." And wings the thing over into a garbage can. "Sorry, I don't have any more...."

One of the joys of salvage. It's usually run by guys who actually own the place. And they ususally don't have to take crap from anyone.

[friendofjimmyk]

This was a white woman with an east European or Mediterranean accent.
And this is my observation. People from third world countries are brought up to believe that strangers are out to screw you over, so you better screw them over first and that the only people you can trust are your close relatives. They assume that the first price quoted is calculated to give the seller room to come down in a haggle.

I don't believe that it's necessarily limited to third world countries, but it is mostly those from the Middle East - they are used to flea market type venues where haggling is the norm. No price is a set price. So, they go elsewhere and think that it's the same.

A bit OT a bit ON T - when I went to Mexico - I saw this bikini that I HAD to have. However, the dude said, "$60". I didn't have to have it THAT bad. So, I said "No thanks" The conversation went something as follows:

HIM: Okay, $55.
ME: No, really, that's okay.
HIM: $50?
ME: That's still too much, really, that's okay, I'll pass.
(He pauses for a minute)
HIM: You don't want it for $50.
ME: No, that's okay, I'll pass.
HIM: $40?
ME: uh, hmm....no.
HIM: $40 is good deal.
ME: I know, but that's too much for me to spend.
HIM: $35.
ME:
HIM: C'mon, $35 is better deal.
ME: I know, but really, that's okay. I'll just keep shopping.
HIM: But you really want that bathing suit.
ME: Well, yeah, but...
HIM: OKAY! $20.
ME: Hell, yeah, I'll take it.

He haggled himself down! I was trying to walk away. However, I am SOOOO glad I did not pay $60 bucks for that thing. It was worth about $20 or even less because it practically fell apart after a few wears.

[Cvstos]

I love it when people try to haggle with me.

"That's the set price, this store doesn't haggle."

"I can't lower the price, I'll get fired if I do."

"I don't work on commission, I'm hourly, I couldn't care less if you do or do not buy it at that price."

"What part of 'I'll get fired' and 'I don't work on commission, I'm hourly' do you not understand? I'm not about to get myself terminated for $6 off a video game to a person I don't know and likely won't see again."

[tenaciousb]

I work retail and yeah, it's usually people that weren't born in america that try to do this. They see the price tag that indicates nothing of the kind, but ask for some kind of discount or rebate. Providing no reason as to why they would even be entitled to one. As if we have special prices just for people that bother to ask?

Usually when they get their way is if they are buying a display model of something. Normally we don't sell the one off the floor unless its a clearance item that we are no longer getting any new ones in of. People always want a discount for that. I try and make them understand that the price has already been marked down significantly, and plenty have been people paying twice as much and been very happy. The sad thing is, people do it for shits and giggles. You make them understand the answer is no, and they always except it and buy it anyway. It there is minor aesthetic damage they will try and get discount for stuff like that to. Again clearance items already reduced greatly. When you do get approval to give a discount on that, I've seen people laughing amongst themselves when I walk away momentarily. Because they pick over these things with a fine tooth come for the smallest scratch and expect savings. They really couldn't care less about these things normally. There prize is the free assembly that would normally cost them $50 plus.

But that is customers in general. They are usually normal people that just pretend to flip out because they know they can get their way if they bitch loud enough. Thats why I hate people. Big corporations just nurture their ability to become three-year-olds. They have no self-respect or dignity for themselves.

[Snakebite64]

My Grandmother went on Vaction some where In central America and was told by her tour guide that it was considered rude not to haggle if it was a small shop. It's got nothing to do with exactly where in the world your from, it's if the area you come from would only have small shops that the owners actually run. My Grandpa used to haggle with people who he bought farming equipment from back in the 50's in Canada because he was dealing with the current owner of the equipment he was trying to buy. It just seems that people can't understand that the person who actually owns the stuff they're buying half way across the country.

[thewhatnow]

Well, no. I was born and raised in a 3rd world country and I do not haggle, ever - in fact, I can't think of anyone I know who does.

[Kusanagi]

I have had all types of people who haggle me.

BUT: EVERY person that has walked into my store that is Middle Eastern or Indian will try to haggle. I have NEVER had anyone from these ethnicities accept it when I tell them that's the price.

[Gurndigarn]

Well, no. I was born and raised in a 3rd world country and I do not haggle, ever - in fact, I can't think of anyone I know who does.

Depends on what country you're in and what type of business, really. And as the malls and big-box retailers move into those countries more, the practice is going to die out more and more.

Malls and big-box retailers. There are so many things the "big boy" countries have that are actually worth having, why did they have to pick up those?

Oh, right. Our retailers are smelling money, and cramming them down their throats.

[MadMike]

I've probably mentioned this several times before, but I had this one guy who wanted to buy a door, and asked me to get the manager for him, so he could try to get a discount on it. No, it wasn't damaged or defective in anyway, he simply "didn't feel like paying that much."

This wasn't even someone from another country where haggling was the norm. He was just as American as I am.

And no, he didn't get the discount. In fact, I later heard the manager talking to some of the office people about what an idiot that guy was.

[Kogarashi]

Luckily I haven't had too many people attempt to haggle with me at the register. Usually they've already done their discount talk with the salesfloor managers, and most seem to realize that the cashiers at the registers will just have to hold up the line and call a manager anyway to approve a discount, so they don't try.

I do have to wonder, though, if it's common practice among Hispanic folks to have each individual member of a shopping party (husband, wife, brother, other brother, etc.) pay for a group of items individually. I often have groups of four or five Hispanic adults, two of which are obviously married to each other, and who often have children, who come through my line. Each adult has a pile of similar merchandise, and each pays separately, while the rest wait for those at the end of their line. I can't figure out why they do this, either. It's not like the store has limits to how many sweatshirts you can purchase (unless there are specific signs on clearance items up front, but that's rare enough. I've only seen it twice, three times if you count the TMX dolls we still don't have).

I have once done an attempted haggle myself at Wal-Mart, but I think I had a good reason and I didn't press the issue.

The Chair

One evening, as I got off of my shift from work and was headed out of the store, I passed a display in Action Alley (the wide walkways between departments of the store, where smaller merchandise displays are located). The item on the display was a nice-looking glider-rocker. There were about three boxes there, because they're big boxes and the display is smallish. The sign above them read "$35.00" or something thereabouts.

"No way," I thought to myself, and walked up to investigate.

There was a shipping label on the boxes, and having worked salesfloor at Wal-Mart before, I know where to look on these labels for the price. "$89.99" it read. "Hmm..." I thought. Other customers often get merchandise for the price it's marked at on the sign, rather than what it actually rings at. There's a chance the store would honor this. Heck, there's a chance it's actually $35 and not $90, since we've got at least one case of water bottles with a shipping label price different from it's UPC-programmed price. So I copied down the UPC number (the box being too large for me to heft over to a register), and I headed to Electronics to ask the cashier there to check the price for me. She Item Inquiries the UPC number.

$90. Dang, I think. I tell her about the sign's price being wrong, and ask if we could ask a CSM or manager. So the cashier pages a CSM over. K, one of my favorite CSMs, arrives in very short order (slow night). I mention the situation to her.

K gets on the radio with FEM (Front-End Manager) and asks. Unfortunately, the most I could get is the standard $3 off that Wal-Mart is supposed to offer (and rarely does) for mispriced merchandise. Very rarely have I had CSMs or managers offer this deal. Either they have us override the price (with no extra $3 taken off at all; hence my small hope I could get the rocker for cheaper) and give the item at the mismarked price, or they flat out refuse (happens less often).

I reply that I won't take it at this time for $87, and mention that they may want to change the sign before some other customer notices and throws a bigger fit over it. Meanwhile, I head out.

I may be back sometime in November, though, to get it before I quit working there and am no longer eligible for my employee discount.

[protege]

He haggled himself down! I was trying to walk away. However, I am SOOOO glad I did not pay $60 bucks for that thing. It was worth about $20 or even less because it practically fell apart after a few wears.

Gotta love it

I had a similar case at a salvage-type store last year. The store had just opened, and Grandma and I went into look around. On display near the back, was one of those big wagons in Penn State colors. I wasn't considering getting a new "shop vehicle," but Grandma thought I should look at it. Ok, fine.

I flagged down one of the salespeople and asked if they had any in the back. Yes, I went *there* Mainly, because they had one on display, and I didn't see any others in boxes. When I asked if they had any boxed up, I was told that the display model was the last one, and if I bought it, they'd let me have it for 50% off. However, the manager just wanted it gone, so he threw in an additional 15% off too! I ended up taking the thing home for less than $25

I've had it over a year, and other than the plastic hubcap thingies coming off--it was a display, and was crudely put together. But once those things were replaced, and put on *properly* there haven't been any problems. Not too shabby