Tips on haggling Frugal Families.com

Even the shy can haggle

Before leaving Los Angeles, we were sure to spend an afternoon shopping the infamous Santee Alley. Santee Alley is in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles. There are thousands of clothing showrooms in the area, discount fabrics stores, and my favorite clothes and accessories.

We were mostly doing back-to-homeschool shopping for my 13 year old daughter, as my son hates to shop, and the items were far too fashionable for old fogies as my husband and myself. Since my daughter was the one shopping I got her involved in the haggling process, which is half the fun of shopping in Santee Alley anyway. No one pays full price in Santee Alley.

My child who is not normally shy, suddenly became tongue tied when it came time to negotiate price. Still, I managed to teach her a few tricks by the end of the day. Here are some tips on haggling for shy people.

1. Say very little. Ask for the item you are interested in and examine it very carefully. Ask how much it is. Concentrate on the item like you are very interested, but unsure about the price. At the most say “I don’t know…”. The salesperson will magically lower the price.

2. Say “Is this the best price you can give me”?. They will either lower the price or they won’t. It helps to smile at them a little. They will lower the price 50% of the time.

3. Be willing to walk away. There was a beautiful scarf my daughter wanted but the only one left was the display. It was listed as $5.00 and she wanted to pay three. She told the sales person, this is the display and the last one, I will pay $3.00 for it. Instead of accepting her price or counter offering he said that since it was his last one he should charge $6.00. She gave him the silent treatment and he came back down to $5.00. She walked away and he actually said “oh you’ll be back for it”. She did end up getting the scarf… from a different vendor for $4.00. When haggling, remember that there will be something similar somewhere else.

4. Say “this is all I have”. Before going out to shop, take the money you plan to spend and have it broken into $5.00 and $1.00 bills. Separate the money into small amounts. Put $4.00 in one pocket. Put $9.00 in another picket. Put $7.00 in another picket. Put $14.00 in another pocket. Try to remember which pocket is which. When someone gives you a price pull out a wad of money that is less than they asked for and count it in front of them. Look at them and say “this is all I have”. There is a 60% chance they will take it.

Andrea Hermitt writes for parenting (specifically teens), the home blog, and also the frugal blog, and homeschooling at families.com.