Confident Consumer: Haggle like the pros, even at the mall
— -- Sometimes it pays to think like a car salesman.
They know their bottom line and how much they can afford to bend, how to use delaying tactics and how to get people to cave more than they planned.
These skills can help anyone negotiate a better deal — whether it's dealing with the cable company, a store clerk or the manager of a popular restaurant. Haggling may be far more common at car dealerships and oriental rug stores than mainstream malls, but there are still ways to fight for the price you want. It doesn't hurt to ask.
How to bargain with different businesses:
•Stores. Maybe you missed the sale. Maybe it just hasn't started yet. Or maybe there's no deal in sight. There's still hope.
If you see a store has lowered the price on something you recently bought at full price, most stores will now refund you the difference if it's within 10 days, says Dan Butler, the National Retail Federation's VP of retail operations. Some might process a return and sell it back at the now-discounted prices. It isn't always an official policy, but it typically will be done unofficially, he says.
Managers at locally owned stores have more authority to cut a deal, but may also have paid more for the product because they don't get volume discounts. Chain stores, on the other hand, have very little wiggle room to adjust prices because they are set by central offices,which also decide when sales start and stop.
That's what Kate Benson learned when she showed up the day after a three-day sale ended at the cosmetic store Sephora. Benson, founder of the executive search firm Martens & Heads, has the store's loyalty card and explained to the manager that she had been out of the country. The manager said the code simply wouldn't work anymore in the cash register. But she agreed to give Benson the "gift with purchase" that was part of the promotion.
Shweta Oza, an assistant professor of marketing at University of Miami's business school, says she nearly always asks retailers to make an accommodation for her, just as merchants expect shoppers to do in her native India. She once got $40 off on a mixer at Macy's that wasn't part of a sale.
Salespeople often don't have the power to make a price adjustment, but they can tell you when the next markdown is. Then it's up to you whether you want to ask a manager if you can get the deal right then or come back, says Oza, who has published two academic papers on negotiation and bargaining. Asking a manager for a deal is "always worth your while," she says. Delivery or assembly charges for big-ticket items might be negotiable when prices aren't.
Author and former car salesman Ray Lopez says consumers have more bargaining power if they're considering two items that aren't on sale. Shoppers looking at, say, a $900 TV and a $400 Blu-ray player should target the TV for a discount because there's more markup in the price, he says. He suggests telling the salesman you'll take the Blu-ray player at full price, but you want the TV for $800 — and that you'll buy both or none at all. Then, he says, only let the salesman speak to his manager twice before making a final offer.
"There's a good chance you'll get your price or something very close to it," says Lopez, author of Inside the Minds of Car Dealers.
