What is Digg?250 Comments
- knde, on 10/10/2007, -2/+113Haggling is a skill.....I kid you not.
Once a year I visit both Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and every time I visit I go to the local art & craft stores to pick up trinkets and such. None of the prices are fixed and you can always haggle for a lower price or some sort of deal. I am a complete failure when it comes to haggling. I just can't get up the nerve to argue for a lower price.
In Nigeria, there is a Yoruba word for a person like me - "ajebutter" Which implies you have led or are living a comfortable enough life, that you don't have to bargain. So whenever, I go shopping I always ask one of my local Aunts to accompany me.
I personally don’t enjoy haggling. I find it tedious and unnecessary. Quote a reasonable price, and by glancing in my wallet I know if I can afford it or not. - mrgreenjeans, on 10/10/2007, -1/+101I managed a shop and I hate the person that comes to the counter, plops down their product and says, "You give me a discount." The person that I know comes in often, spends money and is polite, gets the discount.
- Mizzike, on 10/10/2007, -4/+83did any diggers here actually read that article the whole way through? i did, and it told a great story. not what i expected.
- murphygr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+67if you want to practice, try haggling with the guys who sell rip-off or stolen watches in the city. it's hilarious. i talked a guy from 80 dollars on a rolex to 20, then told him no, i wouldnt buy it for that much, because i thought it was fake. he followed me for 2 blocks offering me lower prices
- CptBuck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+58The only hot dogs i've ever haggled for are the 6 dollar ones at fenway. Needless to say, vendor #37 didnt give a ***** about my offer.
- brwright, on 10/10/2007, -0/+55"How to Haggle, there is no such thing as a firm price."
Pssht, tell that to the girl on my street corner. - Piggycow, on 10/10/2007, -1/+40Except you can't haggle at a lot of stores because the cashier has no control of the prices, if you tried it with me I would just stare at you too.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -5/+40$100 dollar discount on a $1000 laptop from Dell? You seriously got ripped off. Try harder next time.
- blackfog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+33damn vendor #37, he is quite the stone wall
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+34If you don't like the price, walk away and they will come after you.
I worked in downtown LA for 4 years - Error601, on 10/10/2007, -3/+34Haggling for commodities like hot dogs is kind of waste of time. Everyone knows basically what the cost and prices are set with a reasonable markup. Unique, used, and big ticket items is where haggling comes into play.
- fkr3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+30I haggle constantly, but I'm a white guy with money in a 3rd world country so most prices I'm given are 100's of percent inflated compared to what a local would be quoted.
- halavais, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27I had a guy follow me in Jakarta for well over a mile, going from $40 on a fake Rolex to two for $1. He was joking at that point, and we turned around and said "deal!" He was embarrassed at being caught out, and we settled on 1 for $1. (I was traveling without a watch and needed one.) The thing kept perfect time for 5 years before the battery ran down.
- anaesthetica, on 10/10/2007, -0/+26I got discounts when I was traveling around Italy by offering to pay for things like hotel rooms in cash and up front. An easy way to grease the wheels.
- spookyttws, on 10/10/2007, -0/+26Besides those "Big Box" haggles where the manager is involved or where you agree to buy the insurance, it doesn't work to well in any kind of chain or well established companies. That being said, I agree that in foreign situations, it's almost expected that you haggle. Throughout Little Saigon (well, the one in Southern California), if you offer to pay cash, or spend the extra 10 minutes talking you can get a substantial discount.
- soyman5000, on 10/10/2007, -3/+27opinions on haggling aside, this was an extremely well-written article and I enjoyed reading it.
- navitatl, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24Who the hell cares? I, for one, don't care about impressing some salesperson.
- Eshestun, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Damn good read.
Had me hooked the whole time. - SevenTwo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20I'm laughing at whoever considered haggling a hooker.
- Dirtynoodle111, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21Very interesting read.
I usually don't have the attention span to read something like that but for this story I did with no problems. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20I don't enjoy haggling either. I usually just offer sexual favors when I want a discount.
- MrBlue999, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18Giving back old hangers for a discount!!! AAARRGGG, why didn't I think of that? I threw out HUNDREDS of those things because they were annoying and took up valuable closet space.
- thedefiantone, on 10/10/2007, -7/+24That's a very odd conception of 'fair' I've only heard expressed by those with Asperger's Syndrome.
- thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16I'm not shady....
And because of that, I have come into possession of $100M USD and need a holding bank for the time being. You would, of course, receive a 10% fee for your assistance. If you want to pursue this opportunity, I only need a bank account number! - Cerium, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Did you guys read the story? That was the introduction. The story as a whole was quite good.
- aldenhg, on 10/10/2007, -6/+21I just bought a Dell laptop through their small business division. Instead of making it easy on myself, I decided to call up and order the same thing while talking to a person just to see if I could get a better deal. While on the phone with the young lady, I mentioned that I work as a computer tech and that if I might get a break on the price or a free upgrade I could be inclined to recommend Dells to more customers, something that I had been loathe to do for the past few years. She said she'd have to check with her supervisor. She came back a few minutes later with an offer for 100 dollars off. That was WAY more than I had expected, so I jumped on it and once all the free upgrades were figured in, I got a $900 laptop that would have been $1000 normally and $1300 anywhere else. What it comes down to is leveraging your position as much as you can. Since I'm an honest person I've been recommending Dell and have since sold 3 computers for them. Overall it was a better deal for them and I've sent the saleswoman emails with the order numbers every time, just to prove that haggling can be beneficial for everyone involved.
- euro22, on 12/17/2008, -1/+16Another digger from Hongcouver, nice :)
- mrgreenjeans, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14I've heard that one. Repeatedly.
- max420, on 10/10/2007, -4/+17lol I've been going to the same store for a while now to buy my smokes. Next time I go, I will ask the nice chinese lady for a discount, don't think my chances are too good, chinese people in vancouver are known to be stingy... No offense to any chinese people who read this.
- halavais, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Many moons ago I worked in a retail shop. The question always came up: can you cut me a deal. The answer was always easy enough: "no." Of course, if they asked my manager, that answer often changed to "10%" for large purchases.
My wife also managed retail stores, and hated the question. With the exception of very large purchases, she just would not talk about price adjustments, because it was unfair to the customers who didn't get them.
Having lived in a country where haggling was extremely rare (Japan), and spent some time in a cultures where haggling is the norm, I'll pick the no-haggle binary decision any day. For most products there are enough vendors that you can pick the low price. - solidsnake1298, on 10/10/2007, -5/+18Haggling the price of a hotdog down ONE ***** DOLLAR is a major waste of time. If you aren't successful in the first 10 secs don't waste your time, the time of the merchant, and the time of the people behind you that are hungry. The amount of time and effort you spend to haggle should be proportional to the amount you're lowering the price. $1 is hardly worth the amount of time and effort this guy put in.
- Hoov, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12With a name like H0tKarl who can resist?
- Dokument, on 10/10/2007, -2/+14so just advertise everything as 1 billion dollars. and sell it for whatever you like. it'd be one hell of a bargain.
- CiXeL, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12its called the white person's discount = 1000x the local price
- zolaar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I did too, and it was an absolutely *fabulous* article. Very interesting! I don't digg often (I read a lot, don't clicky a lot), but this got my vote.
- Baxattax, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13Haggling emboldens terrorists.
- max420, on 10/10/2007, -3/+14The problem with that one is it kind of makes you look like a deadbeat.
- WatsonFilms, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11That's sort of the way that the writer was at the beginning, to his own admission. But that's because he was still terrible at bargaining. As it becomes clearer near the end, it really was all about forming relationships, being nice, and working over time to get the discounts.
I thought it was an interesting article, and quite well-written. - alamandrax, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10My grandmother does that. We go to buy vegetables (this is in India) - the vendor quotes a price, she starts at 30% of their quote. She first insinuates that the vendor is insulting her intelligence with such high prices, haggles it down to 70% of the quote, and then angrily walks away telling them that their prices are absurd. She does this at every vendor she passes by and then when walking back past them again, one of them inevitably calls her back with a 40-50% price. Embarassing to shop with her, but amazing at how regularly her method works.
- Buckiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9yeah... they have 25% off coupons all over the place.
I had a $750 off coupon for purchases over $2000 not too long ago... result? $2019 laptop for $1269. - wing05, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9It is indeed about relationships and not just being an ass by showing up out of the blue and asking for free or discount stuff.
I used to work at a tourist attraction in Toronto (CN Tower) for a couple of years during my university days.
At the end of my shift, I'd walk to Union station and stop by the same hot dog vendor over and over again and slowly developed a relationship. THe draw to this guy was that he had the most varried condiments out of all the other vendors around.
The end of the shift would either by the middle of the afternoon or after midnight. But Bill, the Greek vendor would always be there. Except for the dead of winter when he was vacationing in Greece.
After a few weeks into it, I'd started walking with co-workers to grab the subway back out to the burbs and got them into Bill's hot dog cart.
At some point I or someone in the group didn't have enough cash on hand and he'd let us go. Of course, we'd always drop the difference off on subsequent visits.
Soon after, we started getting free pops from him and the money/free stuff shuffle continued happening. It became a ritual that he'd slip something free to us while we'd try to make sure he got paid or tipped.
I think it all became even in the grand scheme of things. But that is the gist of the article. Develop a raport with a vendor. Or if you don't do that, offer them something of value that isn't monetary. - parsap, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Or you could just stand up for yourself and say, "No. I will not buy an extended warranty."
- Hayaemsay, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10Having spent time in SouthEast Asia I know what you mean, however the Vietnamese usually give you a good deal.
In fact the only place where haggling is truly accepted in Western culture is on MMOs with a currency and the ability to trade. - sbullman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I agree about the haggling, a hassle in commodity situations. A hot dog. But in some places it's the reality, and I love it. Walking around the streets of Mexico, buying souvenirs, food, anything. Threaten to walk away. Act disappointed. Mention that down the street, maybe even on the way to where you're going, you'll just get it for less. Works every time.
Then there's Italy. Popping out the main train station I look for a hotel. I don't plan much before I travel. So the first place I look I get a guy offering multiple prices in the first sentence he says upon seeing my suitcase, pointing at a strange door looking like it belongs to an apartment building. The first place I enter and ask the price, they quote me 100 euros. I visibly pause. They say, "Have you been nextdoor? What did they offer? We will go lower." It's like speed-haggling. Everyone knows what situation they're approaching and is ready to end up wherever the negotiations resolve. I LOVE IT.
Especially with hotels. I mean, there are just plain two situations: 1) you get to a city at noon and go to a hotel to drop your bags, clean up a little, go out for the day, come back, lounge around, take a bath, watch some TV and then go to bed. 2) you show up at 1am wanting to crash for a few hours and then take a shower. Same service? Absolutely not. Prices should be negotiable. It only makes sense. I can see that there's skill, strategy involved and I love this guy's article. Well-written. - Rooster99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Im liking how he dealt with the rental car company. Ive been dealing with those situations in that way for a few years, and more often than not you can at least gain a little ground, if not win the whole situation like this guy did. Having worked customer service and over the phone tech support, I can tell you that by making yourself more 'human', you will 9 times out of 10 get a human response. People who whine, bitch, complain, and generally make the whole experience a total drag, are the people who get told how the company wont budge an inch to help them. By staying totally calm, approachable and above all else, 'relateable', you can get so much.
But I found one of the main things, is to let the salesperson/customer service person know that you know that they arent the whole company, and they probably dont set the rules and policies that they have to enforce. Most of them probably dont even like the policies themselves - So most of them know legitimate ways of making it easier/better and will give them out to customers that they feel need it.
If someone made me want to help them, then I would usually do whatever I could to work something out. If its just another call about how much the company sucs, cause we havent done our bit, and whatever, then your going to get no special treatment. Im just going to try and do the minimum required work, to get you off the line. I know its harsh and everything, but dealing with idiots for 99% of your working day, wears you down to the bone as most of you would know. - diggumjonez, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Keep on whining and paying more. Haggling over hot dogs is pretty stupid, but generally businesses don't succeed by figuring out the most fair profit margin. They charge what most people are willing to pay. They are almost always willing to sell the same thing to someone who is willing to pay less as long as someone asks.
The point of the article is simply that there's proper ways to ask. Just dumping your ***** on a counter and blurting out your demand for a discount is not going to get a damn thing. Being polite, friendly, actually interested in the other person as a person and not a mindless sales drone will go further than any strategy or demands towards getting you a deal. Wouldn't you cut your friends a deal? If you become their friend, you fall into the deal group, too. - Nojiko, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Of course haggling over a hot dog is absurd. But that wasn't the point.
To come away from the article thinking how stupid he was for haggling over a hot dog is to miss the over all point he was trying to get across that it's *possible*. He's illustrating that you can haggle for anything, even something small like that, if you so desire. In his particular case, more was at stake than one dollar in his attempt to haggle over the price of a hot dog. To him it was a personal experiment and if he succeeded, it would mean something to him greater than the dollar he saved.
Thus the "time and energy" becomes worth the result. Of course under normal circumstances it would not be, these were not normal circumstances. - AxeSwinger, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7You need to go to the person who can make the deals look for a manager or a supervisor before you get into a line. Make the deal and the manager will tell the cashier how to ring it up.
- Prathik89, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Yeah, happened to me once, but in India. I wanted to buy a fake watch for 150 Rs (around $3-5 US I think), but my aunt and my mum wanted to make the price go down to 120, the guy wouldn't budge. so they kept telling him things like "i know allot of people who're looking for watches" and "okay thats it, we're going" only to comeback 2 times.
So i just sneaked to the store when no one was looking and just paid him the money.
Haggling = Extremely time consuming and frustrating. - disparue, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8You didn't read to the end of the article did you?
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