the way i look at prices is this. If the retailer has a price tag on it for £50 then i view it as a starting point for negotiation. If the retailer is resonable and has half a business brain they will negotiate to get my highest price that i am willing to pay for it.

I have stood in shops, no names this time, and had conversations that go like this.

"I want to buy this product today but i am not prepared to pay £50 for it, what is your best price?"

A/ "thats the price it's £50"

"I understand that you are asking for £50 but I am unwilling to pay you that"

A/ "Well thats the price"

"The most i am prepared to give you is £40, can i ask you a question would you think that £10 profit in your till is better than nothing?"

A/ "sorry thats the price it's £50"

"I'll come back for it in 6 months when its £30 and your making a loss on it because your closing down and your bankrupt!!"

Business is business and they negotiate with their suppliers to get the best price, i negotiate with my suppliers for all my large value business and personal supplies. It's just the way the world works.

Or join the MCofS, BMC etc and get a discount of 10-15%.
Then you don't look like a dick at the checkout negotiating with an assistant who will be taken into the alley at the back of the shop and shot if they give an arbitrary discount.

Shop are not suppliers, they are retailers. They negotiate with their agents and distributers for volume purchases etc so they can make more profit from us.
Mark up is 100%. An item at £100 retail is usually £50-ish plus VAT trade price. That leaves £41.25 to pay wages, make a profit to make your business viable, rates, overheads, investment.
I'm not defending shops in particular here, but business in general.

retail price is decided by the individual store/owners/buyers. so prices can vary
nothing illegal there,
why is fuel on a motorway more expansive? one company can sell at different prices and do nothing wrong

the price listed is an "offer to sell" and you are perfectly entitled to "barter" that price or accept it, if the store over charges you by accident, and you enter your pin, they are entitled to keep it, as the contract was closed at that point as you agreed it,
but nowadays who would do that as most companies offer return policies above statutory rights

stores use "our price" or similar becuse "sale" means the store has to prove it was offered at the original price for 28 days or more,

in the current cut throat retail world with customers buying less on service and just going for price, more people are playing the game to make it look good, but long term the specialist independants will suffer as they cant price match as they cant buy it as cheap

if people think a doubling of price between trade and retail is too much, do some research, other industries are much bigger

Aye like mine, I get 70% on some materials.
Shhhhh.

why do people always think they can bargain?

Do we ask for a discount when we go to morrisons to buy a loaf of bread?????????

I have stood in shops, no names this time, and had conversations that go like this.

"I want to buy this product today but i am not prepared to pay £50 for it, what is your best price?"

A/ "thats the price it's £50"

"I understand that you are asking for £50 but I am unwilling to pay you that"

A/ "Well thats the price"

"The most i am prepared to give you is £40, can i ask you a question would you think that £10 profit in your till is better than nothing?"

A/ "sorry thats the price it's £50"

"I'll come back for it in 6 months when its £30 and your making a loss on it because your closing down and your bankrupt!!"

when did this last happen (include you going back to the shop during their closing down sale)?

Out of interest, do you also haggle when paying for petrol? If so, whats your success rate?

I always haggle over major purchases, and any other time there's a reasonable chance of success.

Attempting to bargain with someone employed as a shop assistant is just a complete waste of my time and theirs though - they're so unlikely to have the power to make a decision.

Haggling is good, especially if you're in a rush and you're after a beard.

Haggling

:-)

A "price label" is pretty much an "invitation to tender". There's nothing in law to fix that as a price.

With petrol, by filling your car you have agreed to pay the price they have offered the product to you for, you are perfectly entitled to try to negotiate a better rate before filling your tank. In fact, large organisations do this via fuel cards where they have negotiated a better deal based upon purchasing power.

Meals is a good example, if you order from a menu and at the end believe that the meal was not worth the price then if you offer what you believe it was worth then I believe that you are then in a "civil dispute" over the price and that they would be required to take you to court to demand further payment.

We are into the territory of "contract law" in which there is a requirement for a "meeting of minds2 for an contract to be valid.

I work in the insurance industry in which there is a further requirement for "utmost good faith" where there is a requirement for both partied, but primarily the insured, to disclose all relevant "material facts" which is a complete nightmare. BTW I'd advise anyone feeling like lying to an insurance company to have a read of the Fraud Act 2006.

Bearded, You have nicely quoted the best film of all time.

The money programme recently covered sevice stations on motorways .Very interesting . They justify the prices they charge because by parlimentary dictat they are obliged to provide toilets and rest places and parking(for 2 hours) free of charge.
They cover the upkeep of these services by overcharging those who choose to purchase items in the shops and cafes and petrol stations.
You might be interested to know that dear old Tebay services were by far the best .
We agree , if driving along the M6 we will invariably stop for a brew and occasionally even eat there ,probaly the only services in britain that i would do so.

My view is that, if the cost of providing toilets justifies the cost charged at many service stations is so great then we should allow services to spring up at every existing motorway junction as long as they provide those required service.

That is a true competitive market, not one set of services every 20 miles, generally run by one of two companies, with no other competition.

Another "big-up" for Tebay. It always used to annoy me that they only had a stop on the Northern carraigeway!!

Glyn in response to your question regrads haggling about the price of petrol....the answer is yes. I have a fuel account for my business and pay 3p per litre less than the lowest priced fuel advertised within a 10 mile radius of my address. so yes i have pre-negotiated a discounted fuel price.

I'm self employed and employ people i also subcontract workers/services in so I obtain the best price for everything I do and Buy.

The boats I build are priced at £92,500 based on a 57ft craft. I am more than happy to actually realise £87,500. So i build in a negotiation fund of £5,000 on each boat. thats how it works folks plain and simple.

If the gear shop man had built in a negotiation fund into his product he would be either able to discount it, or more cleverly thrown in a promotion item for what is perceived as free to clinch the deal.

so to continue the conversation with a twist to the end:-

"I want to buy this product today but i am not prepared to pay £50 for it, what is your best price?"

A/ "thats the price it's £50"

"I understand that you are asking for £50 but I am unwilling to pay you that"

A/ "Well thats the price"

"The most i am prepared to give you is £40, can i ask you a question would you think that £10 profit in your till is better than nothing?"

A/ "sorry thats the price it's £50 but i'll through in a bottle of NIKWAX so you can reproof it for FREE" (bottle of nikwax has cost retailer £3.00 but has a retail value of £7.00)

"Ok mate you have a deal"!!!!!

It's not rocket science is it?

Last happened at a shop in Bewdley called Mikes Cycles for a cannondale pertex windsheeter top only 5 months ago, which is now closed funnily enough.

....and if the item you have haggled for becomes faulty and you return it to the shop surely then the shop can be entitled to ask for the nikwax back too.....

...unless they've closed!

cant believe cruxter forced poor mike to close because of his persistent haggling...

Haggling in a gear shop in most cases is just plain stupid.
When working in a gear shop I'd often get irritating customers ask for discount when buying maybe 2 items, totalling £80 or so. On a few occaissions I had to just say "If you don't buy it, someone else will"
To which they replied:
"But im spending £80 here" Fair enough, that's alot of cash but:
"That's not uncommon in this shop, most of the sales I've done today have been more than that".

Seems harsh, but the fact is, that is the price we are offering the good for, if you are not willing or able to pay for it, you shouldn't get it.

Haggling in gear-shops is excellent fun. You've nothing to lose except less money than you would have paid if you hadn't tried. You're never going to pay more than the advertised price. If you do get a discount, it's because both parties agreed to the terms.

I tend to use a tried-and-tested set of "rules", they've been known to work at car dealers, gear-shops, pubs, garden centres, gents' outfitters, hotels, department stores... but not at TKMaxx... yet!

Details on request :-)

The most annoying case is when somebody comes to the till and says
"we buy a lot of stuff from you, we normally get 20%"
And im thinking:
"No, you normally take up a lot of staff time and NOBODY gets 20%".

The pure cheek of somebody to try that when buying gear!