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Asking for a Lower Price

November 17, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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Last week, I spent the morning at a local farmer's market with a shopper working on her negotiating skills for a segment for Channel 9 News. To get the best deal possible, we followed the golden rule of negotiating: Just ask. Simply saying "Could you give me a discount on that?" knocked a couple dollars off each purchase, from jewelry to food.

After buying a salmon dinner and two pairs of earrings for a total of $20, the camera crew and I visited a woman who was trying to get a better deal on her homeowners' insurance. It had gone up by about $20 from the previous year and she wanted to see if she could persuade Allstate to lower the price. So, once again, we called, she asked, and they said yes—they knocked $12 off right away, and offered a bigger discount if she also purchased her auto insurance through the company.

Then, once I got home, I realized I had some negotiating of my own to do. I needed to buy jewelry insurance for my engagement ring, something I had never gotten around to doing even though I've been married for more than three years. Allstate had offered me insurance for $69 a year, about $20 more than a quote I received from another company. In the interest of convenience, because I already buy renter's insurance through Allstate, I was hoping to get Allstate to lower its fee to match the $50 quote.

So, I called. And I asked. And the nice woman on the other end of the phone told me she was sorry, but $69 was as low as she could go. I was disappointed, but at least I knew I tried.

Have you had any luck negotiating lately? Is it something you feel comfortable doing?

If you're in the Washington area, you can watch this special report on Channel 9 News Tuesday night at
11 p.m.

Tags:: consumers,; personal finance

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While this might be an appropriate strategy at places where prices are acknowledged to be somewhat arbitrary (like a farmer's market or insurance plan), places like restaurants and department stores have very specific pricing for specific reasons. The last thing we want to do is create a market economy in which prices are inflated and then we are expected to arbitrarily bargain them down.
The problem with this sort of economy is that you get tricked into thinking that you are getting a good deal when you aren't. Stable, non-negotiable pricing evolved in the US for a good reason and returning to a bargaining culture is a step backward, not forward.

Matt @ Thrive of NY 2:25PM December 09, 2008

To the insulting commentator from another elder - 69 yrs.. That was another time and world view. One that trained people (particularly US women) to be "captured consumers". Trained to a profit-centered fixed price thinking. It also captured one's capacity to explore, to excite oneself in the energy of a purchase interaction....I am ignoring the inherent classism in the viewpoint.
I encourage all of us to see the gift in engaging with one another in the dance of bargaining. People all over the world enjoy in time spent doing this. I learned about bargaining in Egypt, South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland. All places where the dance is done with zest. Only in places where North American, especially US, consumers had shopped did they adhere to fixed prices.

Carlotta Tyler of MA 3:37PM November 19, 2008

As a well "over 65" person, I was raised with the value that asking for a lower price was insulting both the seller and the buyer. In fact there was a very nasty ethnic/racial slur (J..ing down) for the person doing the asking. It also indicated that you should not be shopping at that location if you could not afford the prices set by the vendor, who knew what his overhead was, and priced accordingly.

Roberta Goldberg of CA 12:19PM November 19, 2008

Asking for a Lower Price

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