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The Sport of Haggling

Blog: The Myriad Life Market Blog
Posted by: Myriad Life Monday 11th February 2008, 2:29pm

Whether to haggle or not to haggle, that is the question. Let me give you the answer - not on my stall!

I think I have already mentioned that on my stall every last piece of jewellery is labelled clearly with the asking price, and the batik pictures are clearly marked too.

On Thursday at Fakenham I had a visit from a very pleasant young lady from Trading Standards who apart from introducing herself, said "all seems fine here, I can see that everything is priced." And off she went on her way.

On Friday, a lady of advanced years decided she would like to buy a pendant. Holding it a aloft she said "you can give me something off, I'll give you seven for it."

Now aside from the fact I immediately baulk when someone says "you can take some money off," or "I'll give you x for it," because quite frankly I take offence at being told rather than asked. It isn't polite, it's assumptive and on occasion a little aggressive.

Politely I explained that the price of the pendant was clearly marked on the label as £8. To which the lady replied "but I'm a poor old pensioner, you can give me some money off."

The "I'm a poor old pensioner" line has been used before. I am not a heartless soul and I know that some elderly have it tough but they also get a fair amount of financial help, bus passes, discounted train travel, concessions even in some pubs on food and so on and so forth.

"What about me, the poor (oldish) market trader" I said as gently as I could "I spend time labelling the stock with what I believe is a very reasonable price, I was up at 5am to get here to display it all, and I'm sorry but that is the price I expect to be paid. Also, it will go in a very nice gift pouch - free of charge."

"Well it isn't for me." She muttered but handed me a note and that was that.

Now I know the tradition is to haggle and I appreciate that some people see it as a sport and I can also see that it has its place, mostly abroad in my opinion where prices get inflated for tourists. Also I know it happens a lot at boot sales and bric-a-brac markets. BUT, if I wanted to play the haggling game I wouldn't price the stock and then no doubt trading standards would rush back to tell me off!

In truth, I have a number of regular customers who I often give a discount to. Also if someone is buying a few items again I am happy to knock money off, whether it is requested or not. It's a friendly thing to do (a mark of my appreciation for their loyalty) and it's done at my discretion but during times when trade is poor I have to be more careful. I'm here to run a business after all and I doubt many people pop into Debenhams and start haggling over the prices.

The media has its part to play in all this of course. There seem to be a number of programmes which encourage people to beat business folk down to the bare minimum on price and because the cameras are rolling the trader invariably seems to relent. This is not realistic. If these business people did that all the time their businesses wouldn't last for long. I did notice on The Apprentice a few actually refuse which makes a refreshing change.

So if you want to haggle go abroad - that's my advice!

Visit www.myriadlife.co.uk for very reasonably priced jewellery, pashminas and framed batik pictures!

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