AIBU to think that I can barter in a shop?

[anditwasallyellow]

I went to buy a suitcase yesterday from a small shop I'm fairly sure it's a one off shop not a chain store or large business, just a few metres from the shop there's a market stall selling similiar suitcases but a couple of quid cheaper same brand just different designs etc.

I went to the shop and offered the guy £20 for a £24 suitcase and he looked at me like I was bonkers and said no way, I said that the stall were selling them cheaper and asked what the maximum discount was he could offer. Then I said I wasn't 100% happy as they were all out on display and customer will have obviously been handling them. He gave me £2 off and I thought it was a job well done. I always try to get dicounts if I can.

My mum and boyfriend think I'm mad and hilarious for doing this!

For me I guess it's because it's not the done thing, you see something at a price & it's up to you to buy it at that price or not. Imagine how long shopping would take if everyone haggled?

Also I think there's a slight element in my mind that you're basically saying you can't afford to pay the asking price.

Not at all the motivation is money saving.

Do you not think to some extent that the customer should have some say in the cost of goods, I mean if we sll just accepted everything and never questioned the price of anything companies would just charge us the earth as they do in the case of fuel companies etc

In this case I think that the store was in direct cometition with the stall so would have liked to make the sale.

I can't understand why negotiating a lower price is rude?

It's rude and I wouldn't do it. Women used to do it in my nans shop and she felt really intimidated.

Also, jewellers are different. A lot invite haggling.

Closing down stores (the real ones, not the ones who perpetually have sales on) is another good source.

My mate went to an inde kitchen store, negotiated half price, but not only that, they wanted rid of the stock and gave her an extra kitchen for free. But only she has the front to do this. I always take her shopping for big stuff.

See if you were buying a used car you would haggle right? So what's the difference in a shop especially where the shop owner is present.

My Mum does it quite a lot. Not in every single store though. She will ask for discount if things are display models or scuffed though, which I think is fair enough. She had a whale of a time in Tunisia at the markets...they think it's rude if you DON'T haggle.

I think it's exactly that yellow. You're saying to them look, I'm interested but I can get it cheaper there. You're giving them a chance to save a sale rather than you saying nothing. If you said nothing he'd have lost your sale and maybe others. He might now bring his prices in line with stall so you might have done him a favour!

Anditwas - because you've seen the price tag and that's what it is. Would you actually get a loaf of bread in asda and try to get that cheaper? I wouldn't embarrass myself by doing it in any shop.

A lot of shops have margins of what theyre allowed to go down to, but this is usually mail order shops and it's an incentive when someone buys a lot. You shouldn't just walk up to the till and expect a shop assistant to agree on a given price they're not allowed for one!

Getting one over on the seller....so true!

When a friend who worked in a small shop they'd occasionally in difficult times price difficult to shift items like so; Items worht £3 on shelf, all labelled £5 on shelf, one 'mis-labelled' at £2.50. People saw and would buy instantly, then another one gets labelled £2.50 and that goes.... People would love getting one over.

Just because you can't do it in shops like Asda though, doesn't mean you can't try it in any other shop. It's about picking and choosing where it's appropriate. Some places are happy to do it.

I've been told that antique/bric-a-brac shops do that a lot.

(I mean the mis-labelling thing)

Ghostship that's a bit different though as usually the checkout person wouldn't have the authority to offer a discount. I might ask for a discount at customer services if there was a shorter date than I'd have liked or something like that.

Can see it splits opinion though.

It is really intimidating, though, if you're behind the till and you don't have any authority - you just have to keep saying no, you're not allowed, no, the manager won't either and she's not here, etc. etc.

Some people are really polite and have the knack of making it sound like a casual question you're welcome to say no to, but other people are really antagonistic from the start and I think if you get the reaction described in the OP it's fairly safe to say you got it wrong.

I wouldn't feel good about saving 2 quid if I'd made someone feel shit to do it.

I would feel brilliant saving it if someone had been happy to do it.

Tiptoeing I think that's actually getting one over on the customer I mean bumping up the price to make the customer think they've got a discount. Supermarkets have got into trouble for doing that.

When I used to work at a national homeware shop chain in my very first job, customers used to try and haggle with me. It was very intimidating and of course I had no authority to give any discount whatsoever since surprise surprise prices are set by head office. Then the customer would get narked with me, so I'd have to call my boss, who would sometimes allow small discounts if the item was damaged or something. I was once completely humilated by a mum with her kids, and once she'd got a few pence off her purchase she turned to them all smug and said "that's why you never accept the price on the tag!" - I'll never forget it .

Customer leaves feeling very proud of themselves for getting 50p off, I was left feeling embarrassed and/or humilated by the whole experience.

In some places haggling is fine, but there's people out there who think it's ok in any shop.

LDR I don't think the guy in the shop was intimidated by me or unhappy I think he was just more shocked that I'd tried to get a discount as I doubt many people do it.

Also I don't think a seller is ever going to be 'happy' if you've knocked them down on price but they are well within their rights to say no or even ask you to leave their shop. I wouldn't go pestering little old ladies in charity shops but thsi was not that.

Fair enough - I wasn't there, so I don't know.

I think people are sometimes quite happy. If you're buying a secondhand car (as someone said), the seller will have a price in their head that's below the offered price - they will be happy to get that, overjoyed to get more, fed up to get less.

I think it's sometimes similar with old bookshops - that's where I get the best bargains and yes, I genuinely think people are happy when you buy loads of things and they often will offer a discount even before you ask.

I obviously don't think it's OK to be intimidating at all...I just only have experience of my Mum doing it and she couldn't be intimidating if she tried!

nini why would you feel embarrassed or intimitated though unless the person was being threatening or aggressive?

I mean if you cannot offer a discount then you just say no surely however much they ask.

Some people don't like refusal. My poor nana was 73 and it used to really worry her.

If you're standing behind the till, you're probably meant to be keeping an eye on the rest of the shop and moving the queue quickly, and so if someone asks you for a discount, that's one more unexpected thing to deal with. If they keep on about it, it takes your time, and you don't know what other conventions they'll try to bend. It's simply a fact that a lot of people who ask for discounts do get aggressive or pushy after a while. You can end up feeling really guilty that you can't lower the price, or just wishing they would go away so you could do your job.

Besides which, on occasion, something like that is a front to distract you from someone else shoplifting.

It's not like small independent shops can say 'right, no way - out' and escort you to the door, so they know you will probably stay there longer than they're comfortable with.

yellow, there's a lot of hagglers who don't take 'no' for an answer.

The tone some people use towards cashiers is deliberately designed to intimidate - "I want money off", "why can't you do it, aren't you important enough" etc etc. I'm sure we've all heard it in shops even just as shoppers. And like I said, it was my first job, I was glad to get out eventually feeling very disillusioned with retail in this country.

I can understand that ghostship and in that situation it is not on.

I would like to think I would never intimidate someone into giving me a discount. In this case the guy was a 6 foot odd shop owner and I am a tiny woman shopping with my son I think he could have told me where to go.

Depends entirely on the shop. I've seen people do it in charity shops which imo is wrong. I collect (just on a casual basis, no big bucks involved) old Ladybird books and will often tell charity shops selling them at 10p or whatever to mark the price up. Second hand shops, not charity, I often barter. I got my sofa secondhand and got about 20% off just by being cheeky and asking with a smile. Other things too, I practically doubled the worth of my phone contract with o2 by being nice and chatty, and having the attitude of, if I don't ask I don't get.