Haggling help - just what can I expect, 4% off 7000 sound good ?

_Whimsical_

My aunt is hoping to buy a few pieces of household equipment and furniture in one shop. It'll come to 7000 euro for 8 items. She doesn't have a lot of money atm. I would've expected she'd get a discount in the region of at least 5- 8% ish. However the guy in the store says he's offering her a stellar deal at 3%.

I was wondering from any hagglers here if they'd expect to get more? What kind of percentage could you realistically aim for usually? I suppose I mean what could I try to suggest to the guy without sounding absolutely ridiculous?

I'd love to help her but I have never haggled on anything, I don't want to mess anything up for her or sound really cheeky or ridiculous, though I suppose in this instance its important so I'm willing to be a little ridiculous if necessary!

Winterlong

At that kind of money you are dead right to try to get a discount. Haggling over percentages is hard IMO.
I would just tell the store you can get the same products at a different store for 500 less but you are happy to buy from them if they match it.
If they cut you a deal, great. If not then be prepared to leave and shop around.
It will be hard for the sales man or his manager to see 7500 walk out the door.

L1011

Some electronics have tiny margins - furniture would usually have huge margins though (if not already discounted). What electronics and what's the ratio?

davo10

L1011 wrote: »

Some electronics have tiny margins - furniture would usually have huge margins though (if not already discounted). What electronics and what's the ratio?

Also, privately owned shops will be more likely to "deal", but chains such as HN will be less likely to do so because they are high volume, lower cost sellers and their prices are already discounted.

Cabaal

To be fair 7% is 490e, thats a fair chunk to expect to have dropped from the price.
If its electrical goods the margins aren't great on them so its alot to expect

runawaybishop

davo10 wrote: »

Also, privately owned shops will be more likely to "deal", but chains such as HN will be less likely to do so because they are high volume, lower cost sellers and their prices are already discounted.

I've haggled like 15% off goods from Harvey Norman. It completely depends who you are speaking to. Avoid summer workers and try to speak to dept manager.

Op, 3% off that amount of a sale is very very poor. I would push harder, 5% at the very lowest. Sometimes also if they won't drop the price they are happy to throw in an extra item.

_Whimsical_

Thanks everyone, I checked with her and is mostly furniture she needs. A table, chairs, 2 beds, sofa, cupboard, a few other house things like that.Then a TV and microwave. She can bring her own cooker and washer from her old home.

I will chance my arm for more so, 3% does seem very little considering she's pretty much buying the whole house of stuff there. Thanks for the encouragement everyone, I was starting to wonder if maybe if make a total idiot of myself if I tried asking for a little more off.

So it might be better to just suggest a price?
I'm not like trying to rob the place of top anyone off, I just don't want to see her ripped off either. If there's a decent margin on furniture though it should be possible to do better than 3%.

runawaybishop

Sales person most likely on commission but you can remind then that some commission is better than no commission. Have you priced anywhere else?

colm_mcm

Key here is shopping around, do you need to buy everything together in the same shop for example? You may get better value by splitting the purchase up.

The likes of pricespy.ie is good for comparing prices on mass produced stuff.

Obv if you get a nice discount for spending €7k then that can't be ignored either.

I always ask for discounts on stuff over €100. It's there to give most of the time.

ssmith6287

You have to look at brands also. Big Big brands tend to carry less margin, also if something is a sale price e.g 1000 down to 800 it doesn't matter if your buying 50 of them it is extremely rare an electrical product will carry 20% never mind any more margin then that.

In my experience on both sides selling and purchasing, don't go in demanding a discount, salespeople aren't robots and if somebody is being aggressive or narky then your discount if any will reflect this.

I generally say, if I take this today what can you do on it. If they say nothing then just say I'll have to look around, thank them for their time and go to leave. Can guarantee 9 times out of 10 they will work harder to get you a discount

Del2005

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Thanks everyone, I checked with her and is mostly furniture she needs. A table, chairs, 2 beds, sofa, cupboard, a few other house things like that.Then a TV and microwave. She can bring her own cooker and washer from her old home.

I will chance my arm for more so, 3% does seem very little considering she's pretty much buying the whole house of stuff there. Thanks for the encouragement everyone, I was starting to wonder if maybe if make a total idiot of myself if I tried asking for a little more off.

So it might be better to just suggest a price?
I'm not like trying to rob the place of top anyone off, I just don't want to see her ripped off either. If there's a decent margin on furniture though it should be possible to do better than 3%.

Have you priced the items in different stores? It's very easy to give a 10% discount if you're 20% more expensive than all the other shops. If it's already the cheapest then there is less room for discounts.