People who reflexively ask for discounts

[walking with scissors]

You know, I've read several articles in magazines on how to save money and they actually encourage people to try and haggle, even in department stores and whatnot. I really don't see the point, as most big stores have their prices set at head office and can't make their own choices to change prices. But if people read it, it must be true! Stores must haggle, it's the law!

I can see haggling on higher-priced items, i.e. cars, houses, but come on. Pay the whole already-cheap-made-in-china-by-children-and-heinously-marked-up price and get over it. And nowhere in any article I've read about haggling has there been instructions on whining and threatening when you don't get your way.

[Rhiannonn]

Now I must admit that I will occasionally give a discount to people if the circumstances are right:

Condition 1: You must be an AWESOME customer, cool to work with, fun and intelligent.
Condition 2: You may not ASK for said discount, I must decide to be sweet and nice on my own.
Condition 3: You must be spending a BUTTLOAD of money in my store right now! Or you must have come in for a fuse and I upsold you into a 600 dollar home theater system(This is known as the guilt inspired discount)

Being a regular customer helps alot!

And when I do discount its usually only 10%. I have permission to write it off as advertising, since you bet they tell thier friends. And I only do it about once every 6 months or so.

Am I a bad Retail Manager?

[Rapscallion]

It is science fiction with a history twist. The popular master of alternative history is Harry Turtledove. He has written quite a few books in this genre.

Examples of his work, guns of the south. Where time travellers give the confederacy AK-47 assault rifles.

Great idea and execution, but he bent over backwards to be politically correct. Put me off reading anything else of his.

Rapscallion

[Worker-Intellectual]

The lamest excuses I have heard for asking for a discount was for a drill where the box had a hole in it that I probably couldn't stick my pinky through. Not the plastic carrying case, the cardboard thingy that you throw out first thing. Also, I had a couple "the box is dirty" because it had dust on it.

[blas]

Gotta love the discount "gimme" pigs

When I worked at the young lady's store (it's comparable to a Vanity or a Wet Seal or a Gadzooks), we had an "as is" rack, which a lot of similar stores also had. The "as is" rack had clothes that had a defect, whether it was a broken zipper, a missing button, a hole, a stain, or a rip.....etc etc.....and these clothing items were down to nearly 80% off. (I myself wouldn't personally buy from the "as is" rack, but whatever floats your boat). Also, anything from the "as is" rack was non-returnable (and since you needed the tags to return them, there was a highlighted pink mark on "as is" clothing, so people couldn't scam).

Too many people tried to haggle the prices on the as is clothing. "I'll give you two bucks for these jeans without the zipper!" "Five bucks for this prom dress with the rip in it!".........yeah, uh...does this look like the olden days to you? No. We don't haggle.

Maybe that job is what got me hooked on Excedrin...

[B&NGoddess]

or, when you say "sorry the discount's only for members" they'll say "well, i'm not a member. so you're telling me there's no discount on this?"

that's what i just said.

Mark Healey: "In my fantasy life I automatically add a $5.00 haggling charge for every sentence or fragment asking for a discount."

or for asking "where yo' spanish dictionaries at?" shouldn't you learn english before tackling another language?

[Lace Neil Singer]

A mate of my boyf and I will give me a discount, partly cuz of the old mates network, but primarily cuz I spend shitloads of money in her store. It can be amusing sometimes seeing some emo kid who's queueing up after me say to my mate, "Can I have a discount too off this £2 item?" Like, no. XD

[MystyGlyttyr]

When I worked at the young lady's store (it's comparable to a Vanity or a Wet Seal or a Gadzooks), we had an "as is" rack, which a lot of similar stores also had. The "as is" rack had clothes that had a defect, whether it was a broken zipper, a missing button, a hole, a stain, or a rip.....etc etc.....and these clothing items were down to nearly 80% off. (I myself wouldn't personally buy from the "as is" rack, but whatever floats your boat).

I would buy from that, but only because I do a lot of customization on my clothes and usually wind up cutting them/ripping them/sewing stuff onto them anyway. Not to mention if it were something as simple as a missing button that could be fixed for less than fifty cents, and I was getting a $50 pair of jeans or whatever for 10 bucks, cha-ching!

But then again, I'm smart enough to see that 80% off is a freaking good deal and I'd better not push my luck.

[blas]

Mysty if I had that kind of creativity and talent, I'd go for it and fix the clothes myself but unfortunately I'm pretty much useless there lol.......even my manly man father can sew, knit, and crochet, I feel pathetic.

[Jazz]

Our company offers a 10% discount for people who join our club and they would have to put a coupon code in the box provided on the website to get the 10% off. Now that expired on the 12/31. Yet, I have people who emailed saying they didn't know it expired, if they could get a discount. How could they not know it expired? It says so on the website, when they ordered and even on the email where they got the discount.

I also love that people forget to put their discount code in there and then ask for the discount afterwards. We can't do that. Our boss won't allow to give discounts everywhere and I explain that we can't do that. They get all huffy and mad. But the instruction firmly said they need to put that code in the box to get the discount, not order the items and then email the customer service department!

If you go into a store and you forgot your $5 off coupon, are you going to pick up the item and beg the cashier to give you $5 off because you forgot your coupon? But then again, I can imagine people DO do that!

[MystyGlyttyr]

Well, if it makes you feel more able, I was almost 12 before I learned how to tie shoes.

[Tanasi]

Great idea and execution, but he bent over backwards to be politically correct. Put me off reading anything else of his.

Rapscallion

What did you find so PC? I've read the book several times and I've always found it very interesting.

Right now I'm reading the "American Empire" series specifically Blood and Iron. While I don't remember the name of the book off the top of my head Harry wrote one on the premiss "What if the Spanish Armada was successful". It mostly revolved around Shakespear.

[Rapscallion]

He went overboard to talk about and ... not quite praise, but you get the idea, people who were not of anglo-saxon origin. There wasn't a single non-anglo-saxon that was of poor character. Remember the black meal planner who had the amazing gift of remembering every detail in his head? They called in a rabbi to translate the Afrikaans (I think that's what it was) as it was close to Dutch, and he talked about seeing the sorrow of his race in his eyes and so forth. There was that black regiment in the armies of the north in the civil war who didn't turn and run when a white one would have been expected to lose morale and rout. There are probably more, but it's been some years since I read it.

I don't know if he went too far in his attempt to differentiate between the time-travelling neo-nazis and their targets, or if it was just political correctness gone adrift, but it rang hollow for me. I still think the premise was awesome.

Rapscallion

[digilight]

At a business leads group I used to belong to another printer who I also do work with at times had a great line to use when someone asks for a discount, or asks if you can do any better then that.

He would say, well, if I could offer you a better price then that would mean that I was trying to rip you off with the first price and I wasn't. I'm sorry but thats the best I can do.

Another friend of ours, he owns his own mechanics shop and tire business, has the following sign hangin on the wall.

"We screwed the last guy so we could pass the savings on to you".

[karma_gypsy]

SC: No. Do YOU get a discount?

Someone asked me this question a few days ago. It kinda threw me for a loop. The lady was looking at jewelry (after close of course . . .), she was inquiring on the prices and out pops the question . . . "do you guys receive a discount?"

I was like "huh?"

"An employee discount . . ."

"No, not really . . ." which is true, we don't, but we can always make offers on stuff (which is o.k. for customers and employees in my store - certain rules do apply though).

"Oh" she replies. But still, why would you care if we got discounts . . . it's not like she was gonna receive a discount anyway . . . ('cause, you know, you're AFTER HOURS and holding everyone up, plus there was a guy standing outside the front door motioning at her to hurry up).

I just don't think it's right to tell customers how much of a discount you would receive anyway . . .