Christmas Stalls Henry Street- any problems?

laura*

I was shopping in town with my friend today, when a hat caught my eye. I asked the woman could I get a little off to which she replied 'You're not in China'

So we left and tried another, for the same cap, my friend found one too so I asked the man if he could do a little off if we bought two, he laughed and said [B]'You must be joking'[/B]

Now they were 5e each, so I wasn't expecting much, I just thought the whole point in them not being shops is you could haggle and get deals etc. He also said 'You've hit rock bottom for that price' and when my friend asked did he have a mirror she could see the hat on with, he said 'No but if you were looking at at 20e hat, I could get ya a mirror!'

I was shocked at their rude attitudes, they're supposed to be sales people, and I feel bad for tourists who are here for Xmas and have to deal with that. No need for it.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Gae

laura* wrote: »

I was shocked at their rude attitudes, they're supposed to be sales people, and I feel bad for tourists who are here for Xmas and have to deal with that. No need for it.

I wouldn't really give them that title...

laura*

Gae wrote: »

I wouldn't really give them that title...

well i suppose so lol

John Mason

the hat was a €5 and you wanted to haggle

we have haggled in nearly every jeweller in the city but to haggle for a €5 hat is unbelievable

Tell me how much profit do you think the sells man is making from the €5 hat?

I have heard it all now - haggling over a €5 hat.

are you a celtic cub by any chance?

who the fug

irishbird wrote: »

the hat was a €5 and you wanted to haggle

we have haggled in nearly every jeweller in the city but to haggle for a €5 hat is unbelievable

Tell me how much profit do you think the sells man is making from the €5 hat?

I have heard it all now - haggling over a €5 hat

Once spent hour and half haggling with a an Egyptian got him down from Egyptian pounds 10 to 5.

in my defense there was fug all else to do in arse hole of the world that is Port Said

laura*

irishbird wrote: »

the hat was a €5 and you wanted to haggle

as I said wasn't expecting much, said if I get two,could I get a little off, I just presumed that's what stalls were for,
definitely not now!

not even wrong

laura* wrote: »

So we left and tried another, for the same cap, my friend found one too so I asked the man if he could do a little off if we bought two, he laughed and said 'You must be joking'

Now they were 5e each, so I wasn't expecting much, I just thought the whole point in them not being shops is you could haggle and get deals etc. He also said 'You've hit rock bottom for that price' and when my friend asked did he have a mirror she could see the hat on with, he said 'No but if you were looking at at 20e hat, I could get ya a mirror!'

I was shocked at their rude attitudes

None of the statements you bolded are rude. You must have led a very sheltered life...

AnonoBoy

To be honest if he had a mirror he should have let you look at it. But trying to haggle on a 5 euro hat is a bit scabby to be honest. It's 5 euro - what's he going to do, give it to you for 4.90?

admiralofthefleet

the people on the stalls are the kids of market traders. having a razor sharp tongue is part of their wit and make up
banter back with them and you will get along just fine

ntlbell

They sound pretty funny to me and probably were just taken the piss out of your frugality

laura*

not even wrong wrote: »

None of the statements you bolded are rude. You must have led a very sheltered life...

They had an attitude, both of us felt it.

laura*

ntlbell wrote: »

They sound pretty funny to me and probably were just taken the piss out of your frugality

I would have had a laugh, but they were having none of it from the get go!

John Mason

laura* wrote: »

I would have had a laugh, but they were having none of it from the get go!

well seriously, could you blame them ? you were trying to haggle over e5:eek:

Ste.phen

irishbird wrote: »

Tell me how much profit do you think the sells man is making from the €5 hat?

Depending on the hat, could be 4.50 profit or more:
First example i saw:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/275086207/Knitted_Hat_For_2012.html

US $0.35 each at large order sizes

RobbieTheRobber

Ste.phen wrote: »

Depending on the hat, could be 4.50 profit or more:
First example i saw:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/275086207/Knitted_Hat_For_2012.html

US $0.35 each at large order sizes

Plus vat and plus customs duty as well.
Add the price of the stall paid to the council for the year and finally add the hours required to said stall person to sell the hats.

They are really looking to make a living and its not quite as simple as buy 1500 hats at 35cent(us) = profit

stovelid

If I had a stall selling stuff for perfectly cheap prices and a small window of time each year to make money and some skinflint wanted to stand around haggling over a few quid, I'd say a lot worse than they did.

HivemindXX

Surely it's more celtic tiger to simply pay up whatever the asking price is.

I assume everyone who is saying the €5 hat was a good deal has actually seen them because in my experience the stuff off the stalls is often dodgy quality / seconds and whatever the chance of getting a discount you have no chance of getting your money back if the item turns out to be defective.

I'm with the OP. I'd expect to be able to haggle at a market stall, if you can't haggle there then where they hell can you. A smart stall holder will offer you something to keep the dialog going rather than shutting it down. Even if it's practically nothing like "tell you what if you buy two I'll thrown in this (10c) packet of jellies for free". For some reason practically everything I order from Germany seems to have tiny bags of Haribo thrown in the box as a thank you.

Nodster

a smart stallholder would've offered two hats for €9

laura*

HivemindXX wrote: »

Surely

I'm with the OP. I'd expect to be able to haggle at a market stall, if you can't haggle there then where they hell can you. A smart stall holder will offer you something to keep the dialog going rather than shutting it down. Even if it's practically nothing like "tell you what if you buy two I'll thrown in this (10c) packet of jellies for free". For some reason practically everything I order from Germany seems to have tiny bags of Haribo thrown in the box as a thank you.

Thanks!
Exactly my point, if you can't haggle at a stall where can you?
Price set aside, thats what I meant.

laura*

plus id like to add that any good sales person should know that if they're polite and just plain nice to a customer its very likely they'll buy more. I easily could have picked up a few more bits.

ntlbell

laura* wrote: »

plus id like to add that any good sales person should know that if they're polite and just plain nice to a customer its very likely they'll buy more. I easily could have picked up a few more bits.

They're not "sales" people.

The stuff on the stalls sell themselves people go their for a reason.

stop whinging about it.

mattjack

laura* wrote: »

plus id like to add that any good sales person should know that if they're polite and just plain nice to a customer its very likely they'll buy more. I easily could have picked up a few more bits.

Like a third hat ?

Degsy

laura* wrote: »

Exactly my point, if you can't haggle at a stall where can you?

Try haggling in a pub over the price of a 5 euro pint..let me know how you get on.

tfitzgerald

Nodster wrote: »

a smart stallholder would've offered two hats for €9

Spot on

reprazant

People giving out to the OP for daring to haggle :pac: God, how dare she attempt to get something cheaper.

I'm with you OP, but the stall are only there a bit. Wait close to christmas when they begin to get desperate to sell their stuff. They will be more than willing to haggle then.

This thread seems to populated with lots of Mary Harney's.

stovelid

Nodster wrote: »

a smart stallholder would've offered two hats for €9

A less patient stallholder would have said "Fuck off love, this isn't Morocco. Now if you don't mind, I've got paying customers to serve".

reprazant

Degsy wrote: »

Try haggling in a pub over the price of a 5 euro pint..let me know how you get on.

Try haggling with the stalls on Moore Street.

Weirdly, it works.

MrStuffins

I don't see why people are calling the OP scabby for haggling. If she can get a discount she can get a discount. Since when is saving money a bad thing?

I love haggling. Last year I was looking at a €10 hat and was asking for a discount. They were having none of it.

"€9"

"No way, it's a tenner"

"€9 buddy come on i'll give it to you now"

"No it's a tenner."

"What if I buy 2?"

"Then it'll be €20"


After about 15 mins he finally decided to give me both hats for €18.

I gave him €20 and told him to keep the change!

mattjack

MrStuffins wrote: »

I don't see why people are calling the OP scabby for haggling. If she can get a discount she can get a discount. Since when is saving money a bad thing?

I love haggling. Last year I was looking at a €10 hat and was asking for a discount. They were having none of it.

"€9"

"No way, it's a tenner"

"€9 buddy come on i'll give it to you now"

"No it's a tenner."

"What if I buy 2?"

"Then it'll be €20"


After about 15 mins he finally decided to give me both hats for €18.

I gave him €20 and told him to keep the change!

After 15 mins I'd have given you 20 euro to fcuk off

MrStuffins

mattjack wrote: »

After 15 mins I'd have given you 20 euro to fcuk off

Then it seems you understand business just as well as these stall-holders do.

See, they way big business works now is that almost every shop you go into is a branch of a big chain, all being controlled by head office.

Employees are not authorised to give discounts so the Irish people have become very very used to not bothering to ask for one because the answer will always be no.

It's always possible to get discounts in smaller shops when the decision makers are present!

It's a very sad state of affairs though when it's gotten to the stage where someone asking for a discount is being called scabby and cheap.

I bet if they said to you "It's €100 but i'll give it to you for €95" you wouldn't say "No, that would be scabby. Here, take my €100!"

Retro Police

I worked on a stall for years and people like the OP used to drive me nuts. Just because the products are on a stall does not mean you are entitled to a discount, especially not on something like a €5 hat! Would you go into Tesco or Dunnes and try it?

Maybe if you were buying 10 hats you might have had more luck. Generally the profit magins on small value goods is minimal, why should they give you a discount because you're buying one?