Bargaining power advice needed.

treeman

treeman

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I need to do some bargaining in store, and was wondering if any one knew what the costs were to the retailer for taking payment with C/C as opposed to cash, which I can do. Was wondering how much room I've got to barter with?
Thanks
 
I find that a lot of shops actually prefer payment by CC these days - saves having to bank cash, and the security implications therein.
 
ditto

use the usual tricks - I want to buy today, I have found this price online (with a UK retailer), here's the printout of the offer, what's the best you can do for me - or should I just place the order online

better still - buy second hand on here and save a bundle
 
Credit card charges vary from shop to shop, as do profit margins. IMO, a few quid is worth paying to keep a local retailer (even a Jessops!) open for when you HAVE to have something NOW. When bargaining, try to speak directly to someone who can give a definite yes or no to your offers and try to be discrete. If possible, pick a time when the shop isn't too busy - the last thing a shop wants is someone taking up their time trying to avoid spending money when there are queues of people waiting to spend their hard earned cash!
 
the actual answer is it depends on what their particular supplier charges, and agin that depnds on how much business they drive through their account, but could be anything from 0% to5%+
 
treeman said:
I need to do some bargaining in store, and was wondering if any one knew what the costs were to the retailer for taking payment with C/C as opposed to cash, which I can do. Was wondering how much room I've got to barter with?
Thanks
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The shop still has to pay to bank cash and there's not a lot of difference in charges between cash and cc payments for a retailer.
 
Where is it and what are you buying? places that have price promises (eg currys) probably wont move unless someone else (not online) is doing it for less.
 
Strange concept 'a bargain'! In my view, in a free market, there is generally no such thing! If you are selling something generally you will try and sell for a price that reflects its relative worth. You won't sell it for less when you can get more!

I am sure that makes sense.....to me at least.

Dunc
 
Debit card is much cheaper for them to accept - but of course you get less protection.
 
used to be you could do some horse trading because of the 3-4% CC charge
now as stated...cash can be suspect..
i worked in a solicitors and for the conveyancing anything over £100 etc was declined..especially someone coming from abroad..

point is you can perhaps get some extras rather than beat the price down
if its a camera get some cards and batteries thrown in

duck though the guy might just throw them literally

after many years of travel in the middle east and other ...touristy places...i have never been embarrassed or felt guilty about circumventing the asking price for the fundamental truth of a direct and hot on the counter sale ...cash or card
 
I totally agree with most of the threads above.
I almost started to believe in "Don't ask... Don't get" theory.
These days people sell goods at different prices at different times.
How come that does not affect their profit? it just means less profit.
Now to the point...
1) I saved £120 on a set of tyres, because I cared to ask....
2) I saved £30 on a Canon 70-300 USM, becuase I cared to ask...

It is such a stage now that there are no fixed prices, even biggies such as John Lewis come down, if we can point out price difference and so is my local camera shop.
The reality is, where do you want your money to be, in your pocket? or in the retailer's???

Sorry for the rant...:lol:
 
Near close of business at the weekend !! managers have targets to reach so you have a better chance of getting a good deal :) help him on his way to meet them:thumbs: lucky shot but its worth a try :)
 
I know it's not going to be totally applicable to everyone but it is useful to know I think. When I was looking about to buy my last camera, my mum was also wanting to buy a camera and she quite fancied a dSLR. So, we teamed up and went into the store trying all manner is entry-level dSLR's until we found one we both like, happened to be the Canon 400D. We then proceeded to see how much money we could get off the kits, we managed to get ~£50 off each body and kit lens and also managed to get a 75-300 each, for cheaps.
Then, my mother being the utmost authority on cheekiness and the whole "don't ask, won't get" saying decided to find out the answer to the question "so what can you give us for free if we pay cash, today, now?" This amazed me beyond belief as we both got a 3rd party batter, 1 UV and 1 polarising filter and a cheapy camera bag of our choice.

That's when my eyes were opened to the idea of bartering in the UK, before that I thought the price I saw was the price I payed. Sometimes that is still the case but I always think "well if I don't ask..."

So the moral is, to be as up front as possible about your commitment to buy within their fine shop and if possible, buy multiple. "If you buy 2, you'll save twice as much."

Tom N.

P.S. This was during the £50 cashback scheme on the 400D so essentially we got £100 off the price of each camera, not counting all the free/reduced stuff we got.
 
Definitely agree with the "don't ask", "don't get" mentality :thumbs:
Remember that most retailers have enough of a profit margin built in so that they have some room for movement on price.

With electronic equipment there might not be massive discounts to be had on the main items, but buy your consumables at the same time and you could be in for some huge reductions. Many of these have from 100% to 200% markup on them!

Give it a go and let us know what you get.

A while back we were working long hours at work and ordered food in a couple of times. To keep our sanity we had a bit of a challenge going within the team. The person who ordered the food had to try to get as many freebies as possible. . . The winner? An order of 6 large pizzas (paid for); 8 large bottles of soft drink (free); 3 garlic breads (free) and 4 side orders (free)
:lol: :lol: :lol: Totally beside the point, but I thought I'd share.

Regarding the benefit to retailers of cash over card payments, as has already been said there's little incentive to retailers these days to take cash.
I'm an accountant by trade and I used to work for a national retailer.
Although there is a charge related to credit card / debit card sales a lot of the time this is outweighed by the cost of taking cash :

Cost of banking services.
Cost of Security collections - not many retailers physically take the cash to the bank themselves any more.
Extra staff time in cashing up and preparing banking at the end of the day.
Additional insurance costs in line with the amount of cash expected to be on the premises.
Higher risk of fraud.
 
sheridant said:
nice work TommyP's Mum
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Indeed. I've invited her up for a few days after christmas as I'm planning to have enough for 7D + grip + 24-70 (probably have enough now going from the past experience). Not telling her that she's my price reduction machine yet, but I think she enjoys it so won't be a problem.

Tom N.
 
Businesses get charged by the banks for each cheque, cash payment or card payment.

However, the shop assistant, whose knowledge of the intricacies of banking may be limited, will probably not realise this, and thus may be more open to a cash deal, especially if its waved under his or her nose.

If we get offered cash in my business we accept, but rather than banking it we offload it to other people or use it as petty cash. All cash gets logged as payment.

Some people would break the law and do a cash deal for goods or services. Money goes into back pocket and there is no invoice ever done. No comeback either.
 
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