So, I am sitting in my "office" during lunch at work today, when one of the other employees in my department came in and asked if i could give him a lift to Futureshop, as he needed to buy a new Monitor for his machine at home...

So I drive him up to the local Futureshop, and while he was looking at monitors I was taking a look at the game section..


Now, after a few minutes he comes up to me and said he had picked one out..
I asked out of curiosity what model he picked, after he showed me i said:

Me: "wow man.. $600 is alot for a display monitor.. you sure your gonna get that one?"

he said yeah thats the one he wanted, so i look at him...

Me: "..man, the holiday season is coming up.. I'm not letting you throw that much money at it.. wait one second.."


So, I go up to Customer Service and ask to speak to the manager..
After roughly 20 minutes of talking to the manager, I managed to get him to knock off $50 from the price of the monitor..



My Co-worker was shocked, saying "how did you do that?"
to which my response was "I bartered.. I do it all the time.."

according to my co-worker "no one ever barters anymore" and trying to do so will get you "kicked out of the store"...


I found this odd, as I have been bartering for objects I deem "to expensive" (usually PC Components) from stores like Futureshop for years..




does anybody else still try and barter with stores? and if so, are you successful?

Yes---but it depends what I'm buying, where I'm buying it from, who is serving me, etc. For instance, I wouldn't bother trying with a casual shop assistant for a cheap item at a big department store. But I will barter at the market if I'm buying a lot of fruit/veg/meat/seafood from one stall. I haven't bought any music gear (hi-fi equipment or instrument related stuff) for a little while, but I always barter on that.

Bartering is a lot like manipulating, lying, negotiating, and comforting to me. I understand how it is done, what to say, but I am unable to do it regardless.

I've never been successful with haggling prices, though I've tried sometimes.

Well, the party attempting to sell you stuff is doing all of those things, so why not give it back to them?

I do it every day I ride the bus. They want to charge riders 1.25 to ride out here (2.50 for advlts) but I only pay a dollar. Most drivers don't say anything, but the few that do (often woman) end up being told "I'll give you a dollar, or I'll give you nothing."

Had too many people try that during a summer job I had at Pottery Barn. I showed them the door.

I didn't mean it like that. I meant it as in I know how it's done, but I cannot do it myself. It would be awesome if I could do any of those things, but I can't.

The six words everybody behind you doesn't want to hear. "Let me talk to you manager"

Certain things I can understand bartering for. I typically don't barter, but then I usually only buy things when they're on sale.

Bartering isn't that common in Norway. I do it when I'm down in southern Europe/Middle East, though.

I believe you mean boasting, admiring, joking, and coercing.

...Yeah, I never barter. But then again, I try to buy online whenever I can.

Wow I didn't even know you could do this now or ever.

I thought they would just kick you out.

This has to be one of the most childish things I have read on these forums. 0,25 in any currency is not a lot, and certainly not enough to risk getting someone into trouble for who just wants to get on with their work without hassle. Especially considering bus drivers really don't have a lot of time to be arguing with passengers about the price since in many places bus drivers are expected to work as fast as possible within the legal constricts of the traffic laws, delaying their route to get someone to hustle up 0,25 would be simply absurd. If money is really that tight for you, at 17 you should easily be able to get a job to make up for it, even if it isn't some high end job right away.

As for the rest of the thread, I really don't try to barter and wouldn't like it myself. Bartering with someone who is not in any sort of position to be changing prices is a big no-no since it will either just waste your time or get them into trouble, and quite frankly even bartering at smaller places where you might be dealing with the store owner in your transaction, I'd think that the one making the price markings invested a good deal of time with it and set these prices with a goal in mind.

I just don't think that in this age of information, when prices are only a click away, that there is any place for bartering. It's not like we're living in some times where a shop owner might not have a good idea of how much the prices should be, these days it's so easy to look up what the competition is selling their wares at that I don't think prices are really set on a whim so much.

The way I look at it, today's form of bartering is simply letting advertisemant speak for itself. Look up prices, see which store has the lowest prices, and shop there. If the owners of the other shops see a decline in their sales and an increase in their competitor's sales, they can just lower their prices, offer some sort of a service or benefit to justify shopping with them at a higher price, or lose the rest of their customers.

I might be horribly mistaken or misinformed, but this is just how I see it right now.

I hate the idea of bartering, and that prices are set at a point where that's the general idea: I like to know that the price is simply The Price™ and that's that. I particularly unenjoy things like buying cars where it seems necessary to spend days variously quibbling, scheming and manoeuvring in order to not get ripped off by a significant amount: just price the damned thing properly and stop playing games.

I work at an antique store with a refinishing shop. Bartering is the name of my game.

And then you go buy the item somewhere else. It's smart to use the power you have as a consumer, when you can.

1. Yes, it's a waste of time to try to negotiate a transaction with someone who doesn't really have the authority to negotiate.

2. Many factors determine the asking price, not just keeping parity with other sellers. The cost of the goods matters. The cost of overheads matters. Wooing customers with low prices, so they'll buy other, more profitable items also matters.

3. You have no complaints about people choosing where to shop based on the asking price, and sellers adjusting their asking price to attract more customers. There's not much difference between this and bartering. Bartering is just communicating to the seller "I won't buy at your current asking price, but I will buy at this lower price".

There are people who trade in physical goods you don't see it often but they do, a show on TV called Barter Kings comes to mind as an modern example, of course with TV shows you have to take some with a grain of salt, sometimes more.

Bartering is not dead in the slightest. I used to work retail at a hardware store. We were authorized to cut up to 10% off the price of a product if we wanted to. But that is if we wanted to, a lot of people try to barter but they tend to give us a bad attitude or verbal abuse so we usually did not give price exceptions.

25 cents quickly builds up over the course of a five day week, especially when you ride the bus twice a day. Within two days, you've spent a dollar. Five days a week spread out over a month ends up making quite a difference when you do math.

I don't consider it childish. Very rarely do I receive complaints, and I don"t get driven far for the ride to be worth that extra 25 cents. The bus gets more than enough passengers every day to cover the cost of gas and paying employes. I could easily walk home, though I'd rather not. At the end of the day, it boils down to what I think their service they provide me as acustomer is worth, and given the general response from drivers, I think it is a fair agreement.

And that's the most childish thing you've read on here? I'm very doubtful of that.

Be grateful that you only have to pay 1.5 dollar; I have to pay 6.4 while the government at the same time encourages us to use public transport more and leave our cars at home by putting fees and tolls everywhere.

Loooool, right. Idiots.

Trust me. From experience, we don't give a damn if you shop some where else, and you probably won't get it cheaper else where unless there is some kind of price matching war.

If you demean and insult a retail employee don't be surprised if you don't end up entitled to getting any kind of special treatment other than polite directions where to find the door.

....yeah, I'd definitely rather pay the $50 instead of this. But, then, I'm an introvert and someone who's no good at small talk / slinging bull / etc.

I don't even like it when a clerk comes up and asks if I want help. No, I want you to leave me alone so I can get the thing I want, then I'll come give you what it costs.

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re: bus fares.

I think the problem is that this....

... doesn't come across as "bartering", it comes across as being a thief and a cheat. Perhaps it's just the way it's written.

It's one thing or another I suppose, depending on how you look at it. If a day comes where someone is truly offended by the lack of a quarter, I'll be willing to hand one over. Beyond that, I see no reason to cease. Maybe a day will come where that quarter won't make much of a difference to me at the end of the month, but as of now I go by my statement that it adds up.

When it comes to actual stores on the other hand, I don't see prices to be negotiable. TThe only exception is when tax may set you of a nickel to a penny, but cashiers usually cover that anyways.

Everyone is confusing "bartering" with "bargaining"....yes I had to be that guy who points it out

It's still alive and well in the world offline, just recently we were sold on a better cable/internet deal but when the salesman was setting up our service his supervisor told him the deal was no longer valid and the salesman didn't get the email telling him they can't offer it anymore but he still tried to cut a decent deal; I told him to call his supervisor back and do the original deal or no deal at all...naturally the supervisor made it happen which he previously said was impossible

The quarter thing is kind of dumb . If you want this quarter bus driver you need to make a hassle for it ? Why even pay at all? In Denver you can ride the light rail all over and never pay, but I do because I'm a good citizen and I don't feel creepy . So if it's no big deal just pay the quarter man.