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Chiming in to add - Lasik! I saved and saved to get mine in my early 20s, and assumed it's just the price you pay like anywhere else. About 8 years later, wen

Chiming in to add - Lasik! I saved and saved to get mine in my early 20s, and assumed it's just the price you pay like anywhere else. About 8 years later, went to same place for my wife and between age and experience I just said 'ah, sounds like too much we'll go elsewhere' and they nearly halved the price. Wish I knew that the first time! However, don't overdo it. You're highly unlikely to get anywhere trying to negotiate at big box or grocery stores on typical items and likely just annoy the cashier. My brother used to get driven up the wall by people wasting time doing this - noting they were usually foreign people and that may have been how things worked in their native country.

dataflow 5y ago
Basically, it only makes sense to haggle when the other person actually has a nontrivial incentive to make the sale. If their pay is going to be the same regardless of the sale, "I'm taking my elsewhere elsewhere" is going to be meaningless.
- silisili 5y ago
  Great point. I realized that when working auto parts as a teen. There was zero incentive for me to care about sales, I just got my barely minimum wage. My manager though would always be ready to wheel and deal on big items. He told me eventually they get bonuses based on monthly sales, so would do anything to get them. Weird dynamic really. So basically you only might get a discount on non busy days when the store manager was in. This is probably why the whole 'Let me talk to the manager' stuff came about in the first place.
- plorkyeran 5y ago
  It also only makes sense to haggle when the other person has the authority to change the price. Retail salespeople sometimes makes a commission on sales but have no say in the price.
- philjohn 5y ago
  This is why, pre chip shortage, there were great times to buy cars - the end of their financial year. If a dealership sells an agreed on number of cars they get a % back on each car purchased, I've heard 5% quoted. At the end of the financial year, they quite possibly might only be a few cars away from this, and it's a big deal. I was buying a new car, and they were adamant about sticking to the list price, so I walked. A few days later they phoned up offering a STEEP discount (25%), sadly, the one they had in stock wasn't the colour or spec I wanted, and I managed to get another dealership to cut almost as much off. But it goes to show - knowing who you're buying from, knowing how they make their money, and when they need sales quick, and crucially, being ready to walk away, are important.
gridspy 5y ago
Perhaps it was the 8 years that did it? During those first years they would have paid off all the equipment and sold the treatment to the vast portion of eligible patients. Congrats for asking! I should try that!
- nrmitchi 5y ago
  Naw, I got a 30% cut by simply saying “that’s higher than I was hoping was, I was expecting closer to $XXX” to which they said “we can do that if you can schedule it next week”.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
wodenokoto 5y ago
Big box, like big box electronic stores? They generally have a discount budget they can use on small items if you buy big items. E.g, I got my carrying case for free because I bought a switch _and_ two games. Got delivery and installation free because we bought a stovetop _and_ a fridge. But it had to be negotiated.
amingilani 5y ago
Tangential question: How'd LASIK work out for you?
- silisili 5y ago
  Like everything else in life, I obsessed and compared pros and cons for weeks before deciding on PRK. In the end, the thought of having an 'eye flap' was disgusting enough to me to choose the older option. The surgery was super quick, and I could see amazing right away. Then it all went away. I probably slept for 2 or 3 days straight... waking only to take a pain pill and sleep again. I remember looking at the ceiling fan each day and it looking clearer and clearer before my eyes hurt and said pills. I could finally work but my eyes were super light sensitive and my resolution was trash. I was sitting in a room with no lights, sunglasses, and my laptop screen zoomed way in when I started back at work, and even then kept confusing minus for equals. In short time it healed and like most things, I forgot the bad and am completely happy. My wife got Lasik and could see perfectly a few hours later with no side effects. I guess she doesn't mind that gross eye flap I kept reading about, lol. In the end, we are both happy with our choices and would do it again in a heartbeat.
  - petercooper 5y ago
    For anyone who's bothered about the way the "flap" was traditionally created for Lasik (i.e. a blade – no, I wouldn't have liked this either!), there is now commonly a bladeless laser-based approach. They still have to move the flap off and on but it's a second or two in a 10 minute procedure and saves many post-op hassles of PRK.
exikyut 5y ago
I wonder if the significant deflation was a feature of this being a medical context, a US medical context in particular. My vague understanding of the subject is that everyone just pulls giant numbers out of thin air to start the professional haggling conversation with (presumably) the recipient's insurance adjustment team - who will promptly bring things into the realm of reality they work within. IIUC if insurance is held hostage for a full amount (eg, workplace injury) it might end up a lot lower, while if there's an opportunity for recipient copay (eg, elective surgery) the insurer will punt and say "ok we'll just do $X" - even though the recipient may not realize they can adjust the cost down just as easily as the insurer can. (I faintly recall reading about someone getting some random procedure done, getting quoted $10k by a doctor in a medical center, following up and going "?!?!?!" and being told by the receptionist or similar that the procedure was really just $300 or so (or similarly less). Something like that. The doctor simply had no idea so pulled a number out of rand().) I think things started out trying to manage liability and lawsuit funding (and legal can generally be a giant price guide watermark hot air balloon...), but sort of accidentally got permanently associated with "oh that'll be expensive" to the point the whole thing just a self-fulfilling-prophecy-powered perpetual motion machine - and not just that, but one with an ever-widening margin between expectation and reality... that the powers that be are distinctly disincentivized to disentangle in any way shape or form. So being able to assertively question medical fees, and do it Correctly™, is a definitely-useful skill, albeit one that is categorically tricky to learn (caveat emptor :/)...

dataflow 5y ago

Basically, it only makes sense to haggle when the other person actually has a nontrivial incentive to make the sale. If their pay is going to be the same regardless of the sale, "I'm taking my elsewhere elsewhere" is going to be meaningless.

silisili 5y ago
Great point. I realized that when working auto parts as a teen. There was zero incentive for me to care about sales, I just got my barely minimum wage. My manager though would always be ready to wheel and deal on big items. He told me eventually they get bonuses based on monthly sales, so would do anything to get them. Weird dynamic really. So basically you only might get a discount on non busy days when the store manager was in. This is probably why the whole 'Let me talk to the manager' stuff came about in the first place.
plorkyeran 5y ago
It also only makes sense to haggle when the other person has the authority to change the price. Retail salespeople sometimes makes a commission on sales but have no say in the price.
philjohn 5y ago
This is why, pre chip shortage, there were great times to buy cars - the end of their financial year. If a dealership sells an agreed on number of cars they get a % back on each car purchased, I've heard 5% quoted. At the end of the financial year, they quite possibly might only be a few cars away from this, and it's a big deal. I was buying a new car, and they were adamant about sticking to the list price, so I walked. A few days later they phoned up offering a STEEP discount (25%), sadly, the one they had in stock wasn't the colour or spec I wanted, and I managed to get another dealership to cut almost as much off. But it goes to show - knowing who you're buying from, knowing how they make their money, and when they need sales quick, and crucially, being ready to walk away, are important.

gridspy 5y ago

Perhaps it was the 8 years that did it? During those first years they would have paid off all the equipment and sold the treatment to the vast portion of eligible patients. Congrats for asking! I should try that!

nrmitchi 5y ago
Naw, I got a 30% cut by simply saying “that’s higher than I was hoping was, I was expecting closer to $XXX” to which they said “we can do that if you can schedule it next week”.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

wodenokoto 5y ago

Big box, like big box electronic stores? They generally have a discount budget they can use on small items if you buy big items. E.g, I got my carrying case for free because I bought a switch _and_ two games. Got delivery and installation free because we bought a stovetop _and_ a fridge. But it had to be negotiated.

amingilani 5y ago

Tangential question: How'd LASIK work out for you?

silisili 5y ago
Like everything else in life, I obsessed and compared pros and cons for weeks before deciding on PRK. In the end, the thought of having an 'eye flap' was disgusting enough to me to choose the older option. The surgery was super quick, and I could see amazing right away. Then it all went away. I probably slept for 2 or 3 days straight... waking only to take a pain pill and sleep again. I remember looking at the ceiling fan each day and it looking clearer and clearer before my eyes hurt and said pills. I could finally work but my eyes were super light sensitive and my resolution was trash. I was sitting in a room with no lights, sunglasses, and my laptop screen zoomed way in when I started back at work, and even then kept confusing minus for equals. In short time it healed and like most things, I forgot the bad and am completely happy. My wife got Lasik and could see perfectly a few hours later with no side effects. I guess she doesn't mind that gross eye flap I kept reading about, lol. In the end, we are both happy with our choices and would do it again in a heartbeat.
- petercooper 5y ago
  For anyone who's bothered about the way the "flap" was traditionally created for Lasik (i.e. a blade – no, I wouldn't have liked this either!), there is now commonly a bladeless laser-based approach. They still have to move the flap off and on but it's a second or two in a 10 minute procedure and saves many post-op hassles of PRK.

exikyut 5y ago

I wonder if the significant deflation was a feature of this being a medical context, a US medical context in particular. My vague understanding of the subject is that everyone just pulls giant numbers out of thin air to start the professional haggling conversation with (presumably) the recipient's insurance adjustment team - who will promptly bring things into the realm of reality they work within. IIUC if insurance is held hostage for a full amount (eg, workplace injury) it might end up a lot lower, while if there's an opportunity for recipient copay (eg, elective surgery) the insurer will punt and say "ok we'll just do $X" - even though the recipient may not realize they can adjust the cost down just as easily as the insurer can. (I faintly recall reading about someone getting some random procedure done, getting quoted $10k by a doctor in a medical center, following up and going "?!?!?!" and being told by the receptionist or similar that the procedure was really just $300 or so (or similarly less). Something like that. The doctor simply had no idea so pulled a number out of rand().) I think things started out trying to manage liability and lawsuit funding (and legal can generally be a giant price guide watermark hot air balloon...), but sort of accidentally got permanently associated with "oh that'll be expensive" to the point the whole thing just a self-fulfilling-prophecy-powered perpetual motion machine - and not just that, but one with an ever-widening margin between expectation and reality... that the powers that be are distinctly disincentivized to disentangle in any way shape or form. So being able to assertively question medical fees, and do it Correctly™, is a definitely-useful skill, albeit one that is categorically tricky to learn (caveat emptor :/)...