Thoughts on price negotiations/haggling in store?

Nikc

I don't usually need to ask at my local guitar shop they just jump in with a decent offer, I am a pretty good customer I've helped sell the odd guitar when i've been in. You can't beat a good relationship well worth the effort on both sides

sixstringsupplies

I’m a bit old fashioned despite being relatively young.

i accept that haggling in Morocco for example is part of the culture but it doesn’t seem right in the UK.

in a previous life i worked for a French engineering company - i looked after UK sales. One day the group sales director came over to get me all set up (company car, laptop, phone etc...)

so we went to the local pc world and he bought me a laptop it was £399 - listed and clearly stated on the price tag.

He proceeds in a 10 minute battle with the cashier to get a discount - she buckled at £20.00 and it was so awkward standing there witnessing it. 

it was so embarrassing- but FairPlay to him he got £20 off and proceeded to take me
to the pub for dinner and a pint with the spare £20

its like going into H&M and asking for £2 off a jumper or something.

i appreciate its différent and easier to negotiate in a guitar shop, especially with cash, but ultimately the stockist has a minimum margin, factoring in all their costs.

crunchman

If you go back 20 years, you had to be completely incompetent not to be able to get 10% of of most things in a guitar shop.  You could get more than that sometimes.  I think they used to put a high price on the ticket to give them room to let people haggle.  If someone came in and was stupid enough to pay full price then that was a bonus.

With the internet, the ticket price is lower now, so there is not the room to haggle like there was.  Given that a lot of shops will offer finance deals (which they have to pay for), and free delivery, I think there is still scope for some level of haggling if you are in the shop and willing to pay up front.

Sometimes it's easier to get leads, straps, strings etc. thrown in though than get cash off.

robgilmo

No law against it, in fact I have heard of people in supermarkets filling their trolley up with the weekly then haggling at the till , its not illegal, there is no shame in it, and no supermarket will want to put all that stuff back on the shelf instead of knocking a fiver or tenner off the price, I'm not even sure they are allowed to, are they?

Hick81

Haggle away - I’ve never bought a guitar yet at sticker price. And I’ve never been in a situation where the shop hasn’t been willing to knock some money off. There’s margins and shops have to keep the lights on, but there’s always deals to be done that keep both parties happy.

jonnyburgo

I bought my second hand 50s Tele from  PMT it was up at £350 I got it for £325 with a nice new £30 gig bag and 2 sets of strings thrown in after asking them what they could do for me, great lads there.

Philly_Q

TonyR said:

Philly_Q said:

It's funny because I'd never dream of haggling anywhere other than a guitar shop.

Not even on a new car?

I don't drive.

But fair point, I have witnessed the car-buying process and I would definitely haggle.

thebreeze

At least 10% or I won't buy, because as @Crunchman says if you're buying on finance that would more than cover it.  But it depends on the guitar, if it's expensive and I've got the cash and ready to buy I'd expect to be met (as it were).  It's usually a vibe thing, if a shop want to make a sale, they will.

SNAKEBITE

If it is something I really want I'll open with a "Is there any movement on price?" comment.

Sometimes though I am happy with extras thrown in, a decent case, strap,strings etc.  These are all things I would need to buy and are probably easier for the shops to provide rather than cash discounts.

p90fool

robgilmo said:

No law against it, in fact I have heard of people in supermarkets filling their trolley up with the weekly then haggling at the till , its not illegal, there is no shame in it, and no supermarket will want to put all that stuff back on the shelf instead of knocking a fiver or tenner off the price

I'm assuming you're joking, but if not you can surely guess what happens when the till is short at the end of a checkout operator's shift. 
Staff search, locker search, vehicle search, the works. Genuine mistakes happen, but deliberate ones lead to you being escorted off the premises forever.

jellyroll

I find a good way to approach this in guitar shops without feeling awkward is just to ask "what's your best price on this?"  More often than not, that one question will result in a 10% or so discount. 

tralfamadan

I had good fun in Morocco trying to haggle but my god it takes forever. My girlfriend and I developed a great shtick for squeezing the best prices out of merchants but I doubt we were getting anything close to what non-tourists would get - but that's okay. At the end of the day I knew what I was willing to pay and I tried to get as close as I could to that price. I don't have all day to buy 8 pairs of slippers.

Same applies to Guitar shopping for me. There are customers who will nag a shop clerk for an extra pound off anything in a Guitar shop. I think these are the guys who cross the line into rudeness - certainly within the scope of British culture. That and the morons that spend an hour bursting everyone's eardrums playing a 2k guitar at max volume to show off to their friends, with zero intention of ever buying anything. 

impmann

I once had someone try haggling with me over a packet of strings in the shop I managed... he seemed to be under some kind of misguided illusion that the mark up was around the 100% mark... he was most put out when I said no. He went to flounce off and "buy them from somewhere else", when I made a valid point...

"OK chap, you get in your car and drive over to the nearest competitor store. Thats about a 20minute drive away, plus you have to pay 50p to park. So assuming you have a reasonably fuel efficient car, that journey is going to cost you about £1.50. PLUS, thats extra time and hassle. Are you going to save £1.50 or more buying them from another store? I actually know the answer, by the way, as I know the owner of that store."

Something to bear in mind if you do like the shop around...

SteveF

In certain industries (cars, guitars) haggling seems almost expected. I’m not great at haggling particularly but nothing wrong with asking if they can do something on the price. I’m just on my way back from buying a new guitar (pics later

SteveF

Not sure what happened to the back end of my comment there - phone glitch perhaps. Anyway, was just saying that I didn’t haggle but asked about best price and had £100 knocked off. I would have felt a little churlish haggling for more as I’d had a few cuppas and a good couple of hours trying a lot of stuff with pretty much undivided attention of the shop owner and assistant as required. They also got me all of the examples of the same model from storage so I could pick my exact finish etc. Great service and a deal I was happy with so I made the deal. Even after that, they still threw in a couple of sets of strings of my choice and a nice guitar calendar. Will be shopping from there again. 

Nick

Assuming cash or card payment...

If a store has guitars on the wall at RRP - likely to be a small independent - then you are likely to negotiate a drop to street price.

If a store has guitars at street price - likely to be Andertons, PMT, GG, etc - then you are likely to negotiate around 5% off if the total order is over £300.

This is because the cost of financing to the store is around that figure, so a smart salesperson would use that to get money in the till and a happy customer out the door.

robgilmo

p90fool said:

robgilmo said:

No law against it, in fact I have heard of people in supermarkets filling their trolley up with the weekly then haggling at the till , its not illegal, there is no shame in it, and no supermarket will want to put all that stuff back on the shelf instead of knocking a fiver or tenner off the price

I'm assuming you're joking, but if not you can surely guess what happens when the till is short at the end of a checkout operator's shift. 
Staff search, locker search, vehicle search, the works. Genuine mistakes happen, but deliberate ones lead to you being escorted off the premises forever.

Nope, no joke, you didnt highlight the bit at the front that states "I have heard" , so , no , no joke, I actually heard someone say that, why would you think I was joking?  I suppose if I was deaf then perhaps I may well be joking but it wouldnt be on a form about guitars, I dunno.

siremoon

Fuengi said:

The bigger retailers like Andertons or PMT I'll always try to get a bit of discount. Always check other web prices as they will match them, also if the item is offered online with free delivery I'll get delivery cost taken off.

Andertons have never price matched for me when I've asked them.  I guess they must hate me

crunchman

siremoon said:

Fuengi said:

The bigger retailers like Andertons or PMT I'll always try to get a bit of discount. Always check other web prices as they will match them, also if the item is offered online with free delivery I'll get delivery cost taken off.

Andertons have never price matched for me when I've asked them.  I guess they must hate me

When I've dealt with them in the past, they have refused to match non-UK retailers like Thomann.  I think they will match normal UK prices, but not promotional prices.

Modellista

Nick said:

Assuming cash or card payment...

Credit cards attract something like a 3% charge to the store so if you pay debit card you can ask for that knocked off the price as well. As long as you're happy forgoing the security of paying by credit.