A new attempt to haggle?

[Imogene]

Had a customer come up to me last night, and ask, "I want to buy 12 of your gallons of water, would you give me ten percent off?" *note: translated from a couple minutes of babble to save your brains from trying to figure out what the F she was asking me*
J: "Ah, no, not to my knowledge..."
"But, I'm buying twelve...?"
J: "And?" *Also note: we are NOT a wholesale club, we don't do bulk purchase discounts*
"I'm buying twelve, and you can't give a ten percent discount?"
J: "No, I can't, but Officer Barbrady here might..." *I point at a store manager who was passing by, and fill him in; also also wik: Officer Barbrady is an AWESOME store manager, I like him a lot. He's always willing to help when we need it*
OB: "No, ma'am, we don't do bulk discounts."
"But..." *repeat mode on*
OB: "No."

[ExRetailDrone]

"But... if I repeat myself enough surely they'll give in"

Sadly, that sometimes does work with the spineless managers

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yeah. I work at a wholesale club. We don't do bulk-rate discounts.

You're buying an entire pallet's worth of bottled water? Thank you very much. Our prices are already marked down from average retail prices, so the bulk-rate discount is already factored into the price, after a fashion.

I did have a couple of guys who were buying like six $100 nativity sets for Christmas, and wanted to know if we'd cut them a deal. I told them, "I doubt it, but I'll get a manager for you." MOD MS said no, too.

[Catwoman2965]

They must have all seen or read the "experts" recommendations on how to get a discount on stuff. Ask enough and they'll give in, if you pay cash, ask for a discount, if you buy more than one, ask for a discount. HA

[Kereminde]

Actually, a friend of mine nailed it as this:

"Always ask, the worst they can do is say no."

So that's what they do, because according to the "law of averages", eventually someone will give in. However, someone didn't get too far in probability classes to find the Gambler's Fallacy . . .

Paraphrased: "The house always wins."

[ravevolution]

I get this 'bulk pricing' haggle from SC's alot

"i'm buying 4 tires can't I get a discount? or one free?" >.<

-Granted we do a particular type of tire on the buy 3 get 1 free deal but thats it! Not all the manufacturers are on that wagon

[Enjis]

My mother always says 'the worst they can say is no' too. And if you ask nicely, you may just get an answer you like. If you get a 'no', accept it and move on. But at least you tried.

[KingOfAllSocks]

I think customers have a mental disconnect between and price and profit. It doesn't how much money they're spending, that isn't all automatically profit.

[PepperElf]

"Always ask, the worst they can do is say no."

i suspect that in itself is fine
but a lot of SCs seem to think "no" means "ask me a few more times and then ask my boss. maybe you'll get your way"

[BeeMused]

My mother always says 'the worst they can say is no' too. And if you ask nicely, you may just get an answer you like. If you get a 'no', accept it and move on. But at least you tried.

AH, but the keyword is nicely, SCs will rarely do that, and will explode with expletives once they hear the word no.
And thanks to spineless manager they've learned that they can get away with it. We've one customer like that, each and everytime he orders, he'll try to get some more discount, only to be shot down by "his" saleswoman. He's complaining that everyone else is giving him discounts because he such a good customer (yeah right). Despite being shot down each and everytime, he'll try again and again and again.