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!

I stood behind someone haggling in an independent book shop, saying she could get the book she wanted far cheaper on Amazon and proved it by bringing it up on her phone. What an arse she looked.

I don't mind haggling in chain stores when I'm spending a large amount, but I wouldn't make things awkward for independent shopkeepers.

I've done it - especially with larger and more expensive items. Face to face is better, but I've sent emails that have paid off for kitchen items.

With our wedding rings, a set of chairs, beds and a pair of rugs I said I needed more than two, could they make me an offer? They all did.
I saved some money and they will have my business in future.

I go back to the same jewellers and see the same man who gave me a discount years and years ago. There are loads more that i could go to.

But I wouldn't do it in somewhere like Argos I don't think. It depends on the shop and the product so much.

Think there's an art to it. You need to be friendly and polite and be prepared for the seller to say no and to take this gracefully. You need to do a little shopping around first of course in case they claim you won't get as good an offer elsewhere.
I've tried and been turned down many a time also.

I think there's no harm in asking if that's the best price. I would do that. But only on higher ticket items like white goods. And I wouldn't bring the price somewhere else into it. Shops can work out what they're prepared to sell it for on that day, given current sales etc and if giving you a few quid off helps their sales figures that week then fair enough. But to justify a price drop by comparing prices with anywhere else, least of all a market stall with few overheads is not on. So, yanbu for asking for a discount but yabu to justify it with the market stall comparison.

But surely a lot of shopowners would be happy to know that their products are selling cheaper elsewhere rather than everyone going elsewhere and saying nothing resulting in them selling nothing? I mean someone shops actually do price match now don't they?

I think I'm polite I would only ask a certain number of times before I'd accept and either leave or accept the asking price. Thanks for replies be back later!

It is indeed "haggle" and not "barter". Bartering is swapping one good for another. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it in principle but it should be done politely and with humour. I personally would not do it for £2.00. I feel the time and emotional energy of asking is worth more than that! It is easier to do in smaller shops and needs to be done with people qualified to make the decision. An assistant at a department store is unlikely to have the authority to offer a discount.

I always ask when I spend any significant money, and most of the time I get a discount. I just got £180 (over 10%) off a piece of jewellery I bought for my wife merely by asking (and paying cash). If I had not asked, I would not have got.

YABVU.

When I worked in our tiny coffee shop/general store/ newsagents, often I'd give a parent with a little child a lolly, or if they were $1 short for their coffee, all good.

Except then these same people started -what I would call- bullying me into actual discounts on magazines, even wanting free newspapers!

The worst however were people driving through who thought dumb hick town, I can barter. Very intimidating to me at 16 having adults say similar things to what you've put in your OP. I would give in out of intimidation, eventually my lovely boss had to put up a sign about it. It's not fair to the employee, it wastes my time and my manager's when I had to go get him because they wouldn't let it go.

So yeah, YABVU.

Do you honestly think shop owners don't know different-but-similar products are selling for different prices, though?

That's where I struggle. Loads of people used to say this sort of thing.

I think it's one thing to go to somewhere like John Lewis or Asda and tell them the exact same item is being sold somewhere else for less.

It's different to say, 'well, this suitcase in another colour is on the market for less' - for a start, you're not comparing like with like, and for seconds, markets do tend to be cheaper than proper shops.

I probably feel strongly about this because I did find it such a rude thing to say - I am sure it could be said politely, or even asked as a question. If you'd said, 'did you know the blue ones are on the market for a tenner less', that would give someone behind the till at least the chance to tell you that's because no-one likes the colour, or to just say 'hmm, right' and brush it off.

Hmm, "rude" but with more of my hard earned sitting in my pocket, or "not rude" and hand over more than needed to a profit making machine......

Yeah, I'll go with "rude". Except it isn't.

I got £550 off my eternity ring so yes I haggle.

Should I read the whole thread?

I would if it's a bigger purchase like furniture/a car/flooring/carpet/bathroom suite/tiles etc, especially if it is a store who have the descretion to give a discount.

But I'd never do it for the sake of something small like a ?2 discount off a suitcase. I'd also never do it in a chain store as the staff don't have the descretion to authorise discounts and I think it's really obtuse and pushy to request discounts there. Not to mention it delays other people in the queue!

Unless you are being intimidating or nasty i don't think haggling is in itself rude. Like others said i wouldn't bother in the likes of Asda Tescos etc as probably the person serving you has no power to give a discount. But have certainly asked in other shops, we saved over £200 when we got new kitchen appliances, just by asking. I don't think its rude at all to point out that items are cheaper elsewhere. In times of austerity surely giving the seller the chance of a sale at a fair price (imo if items are cheaper elsewhere, then there is a chance the seller is overcharging) rather than just walking away.

my xh is african and never lost the habit of haggling.

Its not about 'getting one over on the shop keeper', its about the interaction
I like it. You can tell straight up, the shop keepers who arent up for it and those that are

i myself, find it quite tiring, when you have to do it for every single purchase

I do if it's an obvious second - in that case you are pointing out a fault they probably haven't spotted, which will usually mean they will need to write off the item or certainly mark it down. Asking for a fiver off a top, say, for a make-up mark you are confident you can wash out, benefits both parties.

But not as a general rule, no.

I'm sure you don't want to intimate OP :)

I made a sign for my nan saying 'please no haggling as refusal often offends' ha. But unfortunately the Muslim women ignored it or couldn't read it. It was those that scared her the most too.

Actually it was my great nan :o she worked until she was 83 bless her.

YANBU why not give it a go? You've got nothing to lose except your pride if the shop owner says no, as long as you are polite and prepared to buy the item at full price if need be.

Shop owners genrally have a good sense of how far they can lower their prices without denting their profit margins too much.
I have haggled (not bartered, that's different) on a few occasions, but only if I am buying several items, or an item is a bit faulty (but not enough to really matter) and it's the only one left. Also if the person is a private seller there is more room for manoeuvre on prices.
It's just not something the British generally do, but other cultures positively encourage it, on hoiliday in Tunisia I have been chased down the street by vendors offering bigger and bigger discounts!

We got a £250.00 discount on a white goods package for our DS1 when he moved into his flat I did my homework and compared all the prices before we went shopping that discount bought all his curtains and fittings for his flat,its the same as having vouchers in your hand for discount I think,would you feel embarressed if you gave one of those in at the checkout,same as discount codes when you buy on line,I have no problem asking for a discount and would walk out if I did not get it,I worked hard for my money and expect it to work hard for me.

YABU. I'm so glad haggling is not the norm in this country.

If everyone did this then prices would simply go up, so that customers would then haggle down to the "correct" price. That's what happens with car sales already.

It just makes shopping more time-consuming, it's annoying, demeaning and unnecessary. Imagine the total wasted time if everyone had to haggle for most things they bought, just to get the price back to what it would have been if there was no haggling custom.

I don't want a shopping system where the pushiest, most argumentative, emotionally strongest, greediest customers get the best deal. Just set a fair price and customers can take it or leave it.

GhostShip, thats how it is in the shop I manage. In England but in an area where english is not widely spoken. The sign didn't work. Have posted on MN several times about the daily abuse and aggression. It's a charity shop. Half the time, if refused, they'll come back and try to steal the item.

One customer was getting very abusive trying to get £1 off something. £1 really! is that so lifechanging?! One of my elderly volunteers (86 and works full time!) had enough and gave her £1 out of her own purse, saying 'if it means so much to you, darling...' unfortunately person was too thick skinned to be ashamed, and took it!
I get it daily, it is tiring, and it IS rude. I doubt very much, most posters who have actually worked in a shop themselves, would find it NOT rude. Absolutely fair enough if item is damaged / shop soiled etc...no problem. I was giving discounts on good stuff though because was bullied into it, or to get them out of shop. I've been threatened with the sack because of this, we are a business, not a poverty charity, so i've had to toughen up and cut down

well said, Vol. Arguments like this have taken up a lot of time on my shop floor, and left my team of people who work for free, upset and demoralised. Please think about this , anyone, before trying to haggle - people in shops are usually on low wages, in charity shops 9 times out of 10 are working for free

What annoys me is....my staff work for free and only get 20% off items from the shop. Why should a customer get more discount than that ? How fair is that to , say, an old lady with a painful back, who works full time for free? To see an abusive customer get a bigger discount. Because, I was doing so, I was being bullied into it, for a long time. I'm embarrassed to say that.

Lololizzy, that's fucking appalling! I am so disgusted on your behalf. Haggling in a charity shop?!

That's a new low. What's next, stealing from the church donation box?

I agree, if you've worked in a shop at best it's rude, at worst it's bullying and at times I was actually frightened. (Granted I was 16, but what sort of person gets so aggressive to a 16 year old over a few bucks? So low.)

My DH will ask for discounts but he's Australian and I think they do it a lot there...it's bad form in a shop imo and I have managed shops and know that many are not allowed to offer discounts.

I never haggle in smaller shops but the large chains are fine, and online is even better, just recently I sent and email to a company as I wanted a £50 pair of roller skates and a £110 stunt scooter (not for me) they gave me the safety helmets for free which would have been around £40.