Have you ever haggled at a grocery or department store?

You know, like Sears, or Whole Foods, or K-Mart...

I've never done this or seen anyone do it...

Anybody?

this just sounds fucking crazy to me, but what do I know?

 

I have never personally done it, but my father...man...that guy takes retail price as an insult.

 

Have you seen him do this at any retail store?

 

I was at Macy's in NY and was shopping for a winter overcoat, they were on sale, but I happened to ask the salesperson what other kind of deal they had going on other than the discount they give you when you apply for a credit card, he gave me the 20% friends and family discount.

 

My father once tried to trade goats milk with the local corner shop, that blatantly wasn't gonna work.

What's with our fathers?
and why aren't we more like them?

A direct answer to the question would be... I have been reliably informed that you can do this with a degree of success if you a) speak to a manager b) pick the correct time of the financial period and c) have a shitload of luck on your side

 

Not really. But this past weekend we were grocery shopping and my wife grabbed a half-bag of grapes. I noticed the sign said $1.99 each and told her she should grab a full bag since the price is the same regardless. She was dubious. We asked the produce guy and they were indeed suppose to be $1.99/lb - but said we could have a full bag for $1.99 for pointing out the error. Not really haggling, but the closest I've come to doing so in that sort of store.
I did haggle over the price of a couple records in a shop and came out the winner.

 

yeah, same thing over at target.
they misprice something and you bring it up, and they'll change the price for you on the spot.
no price checks or nothing.

i guess that really isnt haggling, huh?

 

Only in Taiwan.

 

My dad is the same way. He bought a TV from Circuit City a few years back and was able to talk them down a couple hundred dollars, get free delivery, and some free cables. He stayed at the store the entire afternoon doing this. When he buys a car it takes several days and many visits!

I was able to get a TV from Best Buy for about $100 less then what it was marked for.

 

I can see negotiating or haggling for cars/major appliances/best buy stuff...but a grocery store? no.

 

Give it time.

I could see haggling at a produce stand because it's more of a personal transaction, you're more likely to be dealing with the person that runs everything. Imagine giving the poor kid at the giant supermarket checkout line the third degree about the price of an orange.

Once upon a time, Priceline let you negotiate the price of your groceries the same way it did for airline tickets.

 

I work at a petstore, not a mom and pop place but a franchised chain. we have customers come in all the time wanting to haggle and it is irritating as hell. we'll have fish marked at say 49.99 and people will ask us "will you take 35$ for it?". we always ask people if they haggle with wal mart employees as well over the price of socks.....some say yes

 

That actually worked for me once. I had my eye on a huge African Clawed Frog at a pet store. Humongous, the biggest one I'd ever seen up to that point. Unfortunately the price was $50, which was more than a poor amphibian-obsessed college student wanted to pay.

So I asked the manager if he would come down on the price, I figured it was worth a try. He said no, and I continued on down the line, checking out the rest of the tanks.

When I came back to the tank about ten minutes later, the frog was attempting to wolf down a catfish around 2/3 its size (Pimodella sp., IIRC), which carried a price tag of $40. I alerted the manager and he started poking the frog with a net, screaming at it to let go of the catfish (as if it could understand).

It puked up the catfish, its spine now snapped in half. It listed to the bottom of the tank and started to drift around. I asked the manager if he would come down to $10, now that the $50 frog had cost him $40. He agreed on $20, and I took froggie home.

 

lodging that fish into that frogs mouth to get yourself a discount was a brilliant idea!

 

I just remembered a time when a friend haggled at the bowling alley. We were in a large group and the alley didn't have shoes for two of us with larger feet (busy night at the alley). Because of this my friend insisted that we shouldn't have to pay full price. She eventually wore the guy behind the counter down to the point where all of us - not just the two of us that didn't get shoes - got in for half-price! She's a DA so she's pretty good at arguing.

 

Are we talking about haggling (bargaining for goods with speculative value) or being a total douchebag until a clerk gives you a discount on something with a set price to get rid of you?

At my retail gig I find it funny for people to leave their nice air conditioned SUV's and come into a big box store hoping for any discount they can get on luxury goods and getting pissed when no discount is forth coming. I don't budge on discounts. Fuck you, price as marked, there are starving people in the world with children that die of simple diarrhea. You can pay full price for your shitty inconsequential time waster. I got other customers ready to buy, you want it or don't you?

Damn, wish I could say that just once to their face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You can...on your last day!

 

O man I wish I could have been there to hear and see this, so funny

 

I don't haggle like my pops does but if I see an opportunity to, I will. I'll be 1st to tell you though if something is incorrectly priced and if something is cheaper at a competitor. But that's about the extent of it.

I used to work at Gateway Computers way back in the day when they actually had stores and wasn't solely an online outfit. It was always hagglers coming through the doors trying to get something for free. I hated that because it happened all the time. And I was a hard ass about it and would not give out any form of discounts. There was this one guy though that was driving me up the wall. I caved and gave him a free $100 printer with the purchase of his computer so he'd shut the fuck up and leave the store. This guy was that annoying. Fast forward to a week later and this guy comes in demanding that I upgrade his free $100 printer to a $250 printer because he didn't like the one I gave him. What the fuck?! I told him no and what I did was a favor. He left the store all ticked off.

 

I have never asked for a discount unless something's effed up and it's the last one. I don't even like haggling at yard sales...the prices are normally as low as i think they should be. I remember helping my uncle sell off my aunt's shit in florida at a yard sale after she passed away to make him some extra dough and being disgusted by people haggling down an item that was priced at a buck, when it was worth 50, and trying to get it down to 50 cents.

Still, I think it's fair to ask for some kind of a discount if you're buying a ton of stuff or have developed a rapport with the saleperson. There's nothing worse than people buying a few things and just asking for a discount just to see what happens...there's no foundation for that kind of request!

ugh...just a pet peeve of mine.

 

Only at toy shows, and then when its a third-party selling the stuff (i.e. I'm not going to walk up to Ilanena's table and be like "Yo, give you a twenty for it" but I don't mind asking a store that resells larger companies toys to cut the price a little because they're usually just trying to clear out old stock at the shows anyway).

Know what happens in Japan when something is marked wrong and comes up at a higher price at the register? They just say "Sorry" and expect you to pay the register price. I was pretty surprised by that when I first got here because in the US if the shelf says $1.50 and it rings up at $2.00, they'll give it to you for $1.50 most of the time and in every other way Japanese service is totally top-notch.

 

Not so much of a haggle, but I was at CVS last week to buy eye drops (had lasik 2 months ago). I saw the Refresh Tears, which is what I was going to buy, were $13.50 for a 1oz. bottle. I kept looking for generics then saw that there was a 2 pack of the Refresh Tears for $11.50. I knew it had to be a mistake, but there was a lot of them in the slot, not just one, so I took one and went to the register. Well, it rung up as $24.95, and I simply explained that "It said 11-something on the shelf." The clerk went back with me, saw that ALL of the 2 packs were in that slot, and said, "Well, I guess you get them for that price, but I'll have to let the manager know so we can fix that."
Long story short, I paid 12 bucks for something that should have cost over double that!

 

Yep, multiple times...wal-mart, lowe's, etc. I dont mind doing it with items that have built in wiggle room like cars, houses, musical instruments...but never at a retail store.

 

i work in a mom and pop record store/head shop there was this guy that came in one time started pointing to pipes saying " how much for this? " they are all clearly marked i lean over read the price tag to him he does this a couple more times i finally got fed up cos he was about to ask again i told him " unless you are going to read the price don't even open your mouth" he got a little huffy then was like " why are they that price there just made of sand "
told him to go get a bag of sand and make his own fuckin pipe

there is an appropriate time and place for haggling i don't feel a mom and pop is the right place.