

"We cannot negotiate with those who say: what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable"

- John F Kennedy



Storyline:

During the late 60s, a few friends from a small town went to Bombay, the large city in India, to attend a wedding.

One of these fellows did not have a good pair of shoes for the event, so he decided to buy them when he reached Bombay. Before they had left their home town, people had advised them "Bombay is a good place for shopping, but you have to bargain aggressively."

On the day before the wedding, they went shopping in famous Colaba district of the city. Now there are different types of shops in Colaba: street merchants on the walkways at the sides of the road, some mid-range shops in the street mall, and high end shops inside the five star hotels.

Their first encounter was with the street merchants. These street merchants (who were seasoned in the game of bargaining) would name one price; the fellows would counter with 70% less and then after some haggling the merchant would yield at around 50% less. Coincidently, each of those merchants, while taking your money and handing you a bag of goods, would say something like "Since you seem to be nice guys (or hard bargainers) I am doing this for you. But please don't mention it to others."

Fresh from their initial thundering success in bargaining, these fellows went inside a fancy high-end shop that sold suits, shirts and shoes. The guy who needed shoes found a pair, and offered half the price (Rs 50 for a Rs 100 listed price) to the salesman. Declining his offer, the salesman informed him that the shop sold high-end and high-quality merchandise, and that it was a fixed price shop.

Thinking that this was another type of "high end" bargaining ploy, this fellow stayed persistent. While all this commotion was going on, a gentleman in a nice suit, who was watching this whole show from a distance, came over and told the salesman that he would handle the customer. Thinking that was a higher level of challenge in bargaining, the out of town fellow, now impatient, rudely told the new salesperson, "Your item is worth only Rs.50. This is my final offer." As he finished, he put money in the salesman's hand, a technique that was effective with the street merchants.

Surprisingly, the new salesman agreed and sent the shoes for packing and a few minutes later, handed a very nice looking bag with a shoe box inside.

The next morning, two hours before the wedding ceremony, the fellow opened the shoe box. He found that there was only one shoe inside. Angry and also in desperate need, the fellow rushed back to Colaba, a half hour ride by taxi from where he was staying. Upon arrival, he asked for the owner. He was surprised to find out that the owner was the second salesman from the previous night. He told the owner, "You guys made a mistake. There was only one shoe in the box."

Replied the owner, "I thought you wanted only one shoe since you handed me only Rs50, half of the listed price." The fellow said, "What am I going to do with one shoe?" Said the owner, "We were wondering that, too. But then we get all kinds of customers with special needs so we did not ask."

Knowing that he was under the gun, containing his anger, the fellow offered to pay remaining Rs50 to acquire the other shoe. The owner said sarcastically, "You know, strange things happen. We had another fellow like you who came in last night and he also wanted only one shoe, so we sold it. If you want, we have another nice pair that will match your suit, and it is only Rs.125."

Reflection:

If you are planning on doing business with someone again, don't be too tough in the negotiations. Sooner or later you get what you pay for.