I'm hoping that this trend ends with the re-introduction of something I've long felt is missing from the American shopping experience. The ability to haggle.
Circumstances surrounding items in stores change by the minute. Things like demand, how long an item has been at a store, the fact that an updated model was just released, etc. American retail stores seem bound to the retail price set in the computer even when that price has been made absurd by unfolding circumstances. It would be much better if the staff were empowered to deal than to ship unsellables off to some giant auction house to get pennies on the dollar.
Of course, that would mean creating a chain of authority in stores ending with giving minimum wage employees responsibility. Then again, if you can give them a cut for upselling those ridiculous "monster" cables, they may relish the opportunity.
Or you could do what Neiman Marcus does – employees are 100% commission based. In this case, the employees commission would be derived from how much over a hidden base price they were able to sell the item for. That way the could lower the price for the customer, but it wouldn't be in their best interest to do so.
I usually try as well. Sometimes it works, more times it doesn't. It almost always comes with an odd look or the great big "you just added a lot more work to my day" sigh.
I usually go after the "last years model" or "clearance" type items, iphone in hand to demonstrate the current retail value. The most they'll ever do is knock a few percent off and offer me a free cable or something. Their best offers are almost always still ludicrously beyond the reasonable current price. Trying for more gets us a little session at the Altar of the Wyse Terminal, followed by a shrug and "It won't let me do that". Even when the manager is involved.
I'm hoping that bargaining in retail stores will become both common, fruitful, and a socially expected norm.
I don't think it's likely. It doesn't scale to the transaction volume of a department store. Imagine you're in the checkout queue at Walmart and the person ahead of you is trying to bargain with the cashier for 20 minutes to try to save a few dollars.
Circumstances surrounding items in stores change by the minute. Things like demand, how long an item has been at a store, the fact that an updated model was just released, etc. American retail stores seem bound to the retail price set in the computer even when that price has been made absurd by unfolding circumstances. It would be much better if the staff were empowered to deal than to ship unsellables off to some giant auction house to get pennies on the dollar.
Of course, that would mean creating a chain of authority in stores ending with giving minimum wage employees responsibility. Then again, if you can give them a cut for upselling those ridiculous "monster" cables, they may relish the opportunity.