Increasingly, the idea of a completely set, non-negotiable price is disappearing pretty much anywhere and everywhere consumers shop nowadays—even at huge retail centers such as Lowes.
The new Kiplinger story “Master the Modern Art of Haggling” opens with an anecdote about a Connecticut woman who talked various Lowes store managers into selling her pavers that normally cost $1.50 at a mere 30¢ a pop. What was her secret technique? Stay with me here, because this may get a little complicated. Oh wait, this isn’t complicated at all. Just the opposite. Here’s what she did: She kept asking until somebody said OK:
If the floor manager wouldn’t deal, she’d ask to speak to the store manager. Some stores had 100 pavers and some had 1,000, and by reaching the right person and pushing the right buttons, she discovered that they were all ready to deal.
Sometimes, stores refuse to budge on price, no matter how many people you ask or how creatively you attempt to haggle. When that happens, you have no choice but to walk away or agree to the set price. But there’s one surefire way you’ll always pay the set price and have no chance whatsoever of snagging a discount, and that’s not asking in the first place.
The moral, simply put, is this: Ask. The least stressful way to try to get an item marked down—no matter if you’re at a flea market or a department store—is to ask the simple question, “Is that the best you can do?”
The worst that can happen is a response of, “Yep.” And that’s not so bad after all.
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