As gas prices go up, and money gets tight, it’s important to save a few extra bucks wherever you can, and that includes saving money on big ticket items like a TV or camera. By using the age-old practice of haggling, you can get a better price on the product you want. Popular big box electronic stores are accepting and even expecting people to haggle; and most would rather bring the price down than lose a sale. We talked to expert haggler, syndicated columnist, and author Mary Hunt (www.debtproofliving.com) to learn how to haggle successfully. Here you’ll find her top tips, as well as other tried and true haggling strategies.
1. Do Your Homework
“Before you walk into any store, do your homework. Research the going prices and decide what you’re willing to spend,” says Mary. Arm yourself with information, not just pricing but features as well. This will give you credibility as well as a bargaining edge. Research the models priced above and below the model you want, too. The more information you have the better bargainer you’ll be.
2. Shop During Off-hours
Don’t go on a Saturday morning when the store is packed with people. Go at 2:00pm on a Wednesday when there’s no one there. The salesperson can spend more time with you, and will be more motivated to make a sale since there are fewer opportunities during the day. Also, the manager, who typically needs to okay the lower price, is more readily available.
3. Keep Your Cool
When you walk in the door of the store, put on your poker face and contain your enthusiasm once you find your item. Don’t walk directly to it, walk around a little bit before you make your way to the product. Salespeople are watching.
4. Be Confident
Mary can’t stress enough the importance of having confidence when you walk in the store. Ask the salesperson simply, ‘Is this the best price you can do?’ She says that some stores have an unwritten rule that lets anyone in the store, not just managers, take up to 10% off an item. If the salesperson says they can’t go lower on the price ask: ‘Is there anything you can add to make the price more agreeable?’ You might be able to get free delivery, free installation, a free cable or case, or even an extended warranty.
5. Be Polite
Being polite, patient, and charming can go a long way to you getting what you want. Don’t bully the salesperson or threaten to walk out. He’ll be much more likely to give you what you want if he likes you.
6. Embrace the Silence
After you ask for something don’t say anything for awhile. This is a widely popular negotiating skill. When it comes to haggling, you’ll seem like you’re mulling it over, and the salesperson will try to fill the silence, hopefully with a deal.
7. Reveal Your Budget
There’s nothing wrong with saying you don’t have the money. If the TV you want costs $1800, tell them you’re on a strict budget and can’t spend more than $1600. Mary says “Some people will work with you rather than lose a sale all together.” However, if you do this, make sure you know the store’s layout and product offerings. If hanging right next to it is a cheaper TV for $1600, you might not get the deal. (This is why doing your homework is so important: If you’re presented with this problem, you can say you need a certain feature that only the $1800 TV has without skipping a beat.)
8. Get the Sale Price
If the salesperson isn’t budging, ask for the date of the store’s next sale, or if there are any special coupons.
9. Leave your Name and Number
If all else fails, write down your number and name, and say ‘I’m very interested in this TV but I’m only willing to pay $$$. Here’s my name and number and price I can pay, if at the end of the month you still need to sell this please don’t hesitate to call me.” Hunt says a surprising amount of people get phone calls in their cars, or the next day with an offer. Even though a salesperson doesn’t work on commission, there is usually some type of quota, or incentive program underway.
10. Walk Away
Be prepared to walk away and try again another day.
Feel free to give these haggling tips a try. You have nothing to lose and money to save. I’m going to venture out and give it a shot. I’ll let you know how I do.
Robert I agree with most of what you’ve said but I will personally let people walk if the deal isn’t worth my time. If the store is fine for turnover for the month but chasing GP then no one will be getting pants down deals I assure you.
I’m just a guy with 12 years of electronics sales and management experience. Heres my simple advice if anyone wants it. If you want to try to ‘outsmart’ a seasoned retail salesperson by reading all these tips and pieces of advice - you are wasting your time - we have heard it ALL before. Do your homework, get a realistic price that you would be ‘OK’ with paying and get the store or TV department manager and ask for it. No major retail store will let you walk out the door without dropping their pants on price. Also . . . talking to and haggling with a COMMISSIONED retail salesperson and THEN going to a manager should be a crime punishable by firing squad - in my opinion. Hope this helps!
For some reason people have got into the habit of demanding discounts without justification. The people asking for these discounts for the most part aren’t that educated. They think because they’re ready to spend X dollars the store and salesman will do anything in order to get their business. Rather than asking for hundreds of dollars of just because you should do your research to justify it. By just asking for deals all you will get is a nice set of directions to the exit.
-Do your research and shop the competition.
-Be open minded to open box and clearance items. (this is where you get the big deals)
-Create GM by buying cables,etc so they can play more with the overall price of the system.
-Being arrogant will certainly NOT get you the best price possible.
Joe and DSM:
Joe you are mad the site is telling people how to be more educated consumer? Tell me you pay sticker price for everything in your house, garage, boat slip etc?
DSM, I’ll roll the dice online, save 500-600 on the new TV I buy every year and not have to deal with the bullspit in the reatail store. The online shops - crutchfield, vanns, onecall have people with much more product knowledge than most stores do, and actually frequent AV enthusiasts website. Also, I won’t be pressured into some crappy third party warranty or be told how great monster cables are.
You are a dying breed and so are the big box stores. Wake up and learn from your competition instead of belittling it. Guess who gets my repeat business? I dropped over ten grand when I built my last house at the local sound advice, but when my new home is outfitted next year, it will be done
in a couple of phonecalls to the above websites.
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Generally most box stores won’t haggle much. As a former Best Buy employee in the HT section the price paid was whatever the weekly ad listed. Occasionally if a customer complained and complained a manager would give an extra 10%. And those customers were still the unhappiest.
I only saw that happen 2 times in 8 months there. Certain box stores are willing to sell at a lower GP everyday. aka Fry’s Electronics. BB & CC try to hold margin but will match if you have ads or it can be verified otherwise. Best advice is scour the ads until you see the item you want at the lowest. As for commissioned dealers, usually these are the custom install specialty places. They are not going to sell a TV for the super low margin like a Fry’s unless your are buying other things from them, ie. cables, surge, install, remote, etc. They have given up on trying to be box pushers.(There is no money in that unless you move tons of units monthly) But if want want higher end brands these are the places to go and negotiate. I’ve bought all my Denon & Paradigm at the specialty shops and never have paid retail and got the most informed information and great service.