Whatever Happened to Haggling???

I went to the mall today. *Note to self: "I went to the mall today" not a good impression as a first sentence if you're not a teenager.* My mother works at "Les Delices de Bankok" in the food court at the Galeries. She had called me to come by and shop for Clarks sandals, which she apparently spotted at one trendy franchise shoe store.

So I head inside and I can't find them, then I roam around for another half hour until I go back to where my mother was working. (Indeed, she's working hard at the time. Peeling apart spring roll skins. Very exciting.) She then decides to take her lunch break (at 6 pm). Funny thing about her, in that she likes to argue with her boss about all sorts of things, but he's cool about it. That's the way my mum is.

Anyway, she and I walked back into the store and then points them out to me. They fit wonderfully and they're very comfy. *Drool*

They're also a hundred bucks, minus 25%. "That's sale price for you, with Clarks," my mum says.

"But isn't there like a discount for you because you work at the mall? Or a student discount?"

"Well, we'll have to ask now."

The guy was so unhelpful in that sense. He couldn't give us a discount because he says that the pair he was giving me was the last pair, and that makes it more in demand. Yeah right. My mum started yelling at him, "Give me 35% discount!" The guy says no. "35!" No. "35!" No. "Yes!" No. "Yes!" ... anyway...

So I got the sandals for the advertised 25%.

Then I wandered by myself to Simons, where they had absolutely no more summer clothes on sale, except in dark corners and scary alleys where they also sell the skanky stuff. I finally picked out a pair of shorts (not as short as my short shorts but still pretty short), a shell top, and a pair of pants where you can roll up the cuffs and tie them with a cord at the hem. As I was trying the pants, I found a disgusting wad of gum spread out all over the cord. I tried pulling off as much as I could, but in the end, it was stuck like ... gum.

I told the salesperson what was wrong. I wanted those pants, as it is very hard for me to make a pair last longer than a change of clothes. But there was only that pair in that size in that colour (I'm tired of beige! I have 4 pairs of beige! Dammit!) with the big gummy cord. The cord is essential! (Not. I could have just brought it home and cleaned it myself, but why eat a bagel outside St-Viateur when you can get it served inside by a waiter/waitress?)

The salesperson seemed really new at this store. She called the service desk to send someone to help her deal with it. Another woman came by and said she'd find out what could be done. So after a while, I was told I could get the cord exchanged with another pair of pants of the same style, and it would only take half an hour. Since I was waiting for my mum, I figured why not.

"Est-ce que je peux avoir un rabais?" (Ah, mother's genes working on me.)

Unfortunately, no because it was already at final sale price, ten bucks (I'm supposed to be a cheapskate, remember) so no rebate.

Anyway, the salesperson rang up the three items, and I paid, expecting two dollars in change. For some reason, she forgot to give me the change, and closed the cash. I then kindly reminded her, to which she then called the service desk again. (Must be her first day or something.) The same woman came back and kindly opened the cash, giving me my change. Ah, the value of a toonie.

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So whatever did happen to the fine art of haggling? My mother must be one of the last generations of people who had to haggle for a living back when she was younger, at least. She still does it, but with much less success. My sister tries as much as possible to do such haggling, but it's hard.

I blame the multinationals and the big chains of boutiques. The policies may be different at each store, but overall it's been "Here's what we're selling, you pay what we say." It's advertising and accepting these ads that make people brain-dead when it comes to being a consumer. Sure, let's pay 200$ for a pair of torn, faded, acid-washed-in-HCl, short shorts. Oh wait, that's a label? Then make it 500$.

When I was younger I used to be embarrassed when my mother would go arguing each price mentioned, but then I realized how much it makes sense. Of course some kids are embarrassed when they have to talk to older people when they buy things. I never went to the store and never bought anything because I was so damn scared of talking at all (this lasted until wa-a-ay into high school). But anyway, I found that even teens now have much more buying power, and much more inclined to spend on things. So stores set prices for their cute or sexy (*shiver*), trendy things, and the teens will buy it - no questions asked.

No more haggling ever again?

Sure, there's student discounts, and senior discounts, fidelity discounts, and other group-type discounts, but that doesn't really mean you're haggling. It's just letting the stores know what kinds of people are buying what kinds of things. I mean, the company doesn't know who Ms Chow is, but it knows that there are students in Quebec who will buy stupid looking hand-print-on-butt pants that have big holes in embarrassing places everywhere.

But of course, you can always go to independent and market-type places where employees gladly chat with you, discuss the weather, girls, boys, the state of the world, fractals (I'm serious), etc. and then offer you a discount if you keep yelling percentages at them.

Big news! From Jorgh! Future Shop has a national policy of haggling!!! Go there and talk their ears off with numbers until they give in!!!