negotiating best buy deals
5A friend of mine said whenever buying a big ticket item (for me anything over $50 is big ticket) at Best Buy, always ask for a manager and negotiate a better price.
- Has anyone had any experience doing this?
- What is the process?
- What tips would you give in how to do it w/o seeming awkward/ a nervous wreck?
- Can you do it for refurbished items (I noticed the Beats Powerbeats pro are on sale for $130 refurbished) as well?
Happy Festivus!
- 17 comments, 62 replies
- Comment
yikes
yikes
I know that Lowes will negotiate their clearance items but I’ve never heard of BestBuy doing that. Nice if they would do that though.
um…
yikes
Can someone change the title of the thread to ‘negotiating best buy deals’, please? My pun was doa.
@elimanningface thank you oh kind moderators!
@elimanningface what did it say before?
@elimanningface @tinamarie1974 It said something that made everybody go “yikes” lol He’ll probably whisper it to you.
@elimanningface @therealjrn @tinamarie1974 or you could just read the url
@elimanningface @msklzannie @tinamarie1974 Yikes
@elimanningface @msklzannie @therealjrn so after all this time…I never noticed that if the topic changed the url did not! And double Yikes!!!
@therealjrn …you didn’t have to mention it…
yikes - but my real answer is that as far as I’m aware, these people realistically have no control over doing something like this. They’re just usually minimum wage (or barely higher) workers who often have to meet quotas despite not getting commission or getting a very poorly stacked commission. It’s like hastling a McD’s cashier because you have to pay for extra sauce - maybe some kid didn’t care and passed it out for free, but ultimately they can’t actually do anything about it.
I did google it, and it looks like you can price match with competitors (like you can with most places), so if your friend did this they might have just been trying to get them off their back and happened to know of a price match option. Typically in my experience, they have to submit proof of the price match when tallying registers and doing store audits as well. If they can’t provide that, they’re fired.
TLDR: this doesn’t sound like a real thing to me, and sounds more like bullying underpaid workers into offering discounts they aren’t technically supposed to do. caveat: I’ve never worked for best buy, but have had people try to do this at other retail places I’ve worked.
@halfling
The OP did mention asking for a manager. The manager may or may not have some leeway.
Those manager jobs also aren’t much as potential “great jobs”. But the practice asked about didn’t involve bullying a minimum wage person.
@f00l @halfling thank you for the feedback. My friend used to work at BestBuy (not a manager, just an associate). Maybe a practice that works no more?
@elimanningface @f00l @halfling Maybe it had to do with price matching? And maybe before Amazon took over the world?
@elimanningface
I don’t know if one can bargain on the price of large appliances at Frys, BB, HD, Lowe’s etc.
But I do know that a consumer asking to speak to a manager, and bargaining on the price, is a very normal and traditional consumer/commercial practice going back the better part of a century. People always bargained on price for stuff like fridges and stoves, washers and dryers, and related household items, whether shopping at an appliance store, or at a general or department store. My parents and grandparents did this, I have done it, everyone did it.
The commercial landscape has changed a bit, and it’s been some decades since I shopped for large appliances, so I don’t know if that’s still customary.
The practice was also more customary for household utilitarian stuff than for entertainment tech such as tv’s and audio stuff. But it might work there.
I’d say it doesn’t hurt to make an offer. Or ask for a manager and try again. If you get a “no”, well, there are always upcoming Jan and other seasonal sales. And the scratch-and-dents.
I doubt anyone here at Meh is likely to be rude or difficult to a minimum wage person.
@elimanningface @f00l I’m not sure if they even have
any appliancesanything worthwhile left to sell.@narfcake Wow. I guess Tulsa won’t be getting a Fry’s anytime soon. That was sad and interesting. I just spent
2030 minutes reading the comments from former employees.@therealjrn They’ve been in a death spiral for a while now in all the stores.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/YbiPZw8
(I used to work near one of the stores here in SoCal and would often head in after work. That came to an end for me in 2015 after multiple times of advertising items that were non-existent.)
@narfcake @therealjrn
Once way back when, going to Frys was practically an adventure: if we mentioned we were going we got volunteers and tag-alongs, and a group went, practically a party thing.
I guess that stopped in the early 2000’s? With Amazon?
I can’t remember the last time I went into a Frys. s Maybe 4-5 years ago? They had a deal on LG Tone headphones. And that Frys was pretty empty and pretty depressing.
@f00l @narfcake I prefer the wild speculation in the YouTube comments that Fry’s is a front for a money-laundering scheme.
@f00l @therealjrn A decade ago, one of their executives was arrested/charged for embezzlement.
And yes, it used to be quite an adventure. I could easily
wastespend hours just looking for anything I didn’t “need”.I work retail. I was a manager for over ten years. I hate when people do this. It’s not a flea market.
I’ll mark down damaged items, but not regular priced stuff.
@RiotDemon I don’t want anyone to hate me. For example, it was a primary reason why I asked for the title of this thread to be changed (thank you once again oh kind moderators!).
@elimanningface I don’t hate the people that ask, I just hate that they ask. It makes it awkward because I have to tell them no. I don’t like that. Especially if they push after I say no. I get people that want to argue, or worse yet, ask for a manager after I tell them no. It makes me fucking hate life at that moment in time.
Working retail kills you a little a day at a time. Haggling is annoying and if you do it, I will pitch a credit card at you and I know people hate that shit too.
@RiotDemon thank you for the insight. Sounds like @therealjrn and @tinamarie1974 agree w/ you but it made me think of something. You know what might be as bad as hearing no, is having to say it. I appreciate a store associate or manager being willing to hear me out but if they were to grant the discount, I’d feel some sort of obligation to genuinely hear them out about the credit card offer but I’d also feel guilty because it wouldn’t be in good faith.
I asked a couple of coworkers if they would buy refurbished headphones (both said no) but one mentioned he used travel reward points. I have reward points! Maybe I can use that! That is kind of a nonconfrontational discount, right?
@RiotDemon I was a retail store manager as well and had absolutely zero control over the prices. We weren’t even allowed to discount products that were demos and customer returns reboxed for resale.
No control over prices is one reason the store I worked at in Hawaii was so popular (largest in the country in terms of volume of sales). Our company prices were usually higher than the competition but in this one particular store, the prices were cheaper because shipping was so expensive to Hawaii and prices were raised elsewhere to account for that. But not in our store, we had the same prices as all the other 7,000 stores in the mainland country. I wasn’t the manager at that store though, just a part-timer working 35+ hours while going to college.
Some customers wanted to talk to the manager for everything including returns. That was very annoying. I trained and paid all my associates to help me with customers so I didn’t have to talk to them myself but people always asked for me anyway.
Occasionally an item would be damaged (a.k.a. scratch and dent) and I was allowed to discount those items. When changing a price in the POS, you had to select from a pull-down a reason why the discount was being given and there weren’t many reasons listed, not even “Damaged”. I cannot remember one legitimate reason that was there and we always had to select “Other” and type in “Damaged.”
Long time ago in a state far far away. A friend of my fathers was an interesting character. He had a big mouth. I would say he could talk his way into making people do things. That foundation of the story laid out, we move onto Best Buy. We went to visit him and he was taking us everywhere. One of the stops was Best Buy. He was asking my father if he needed anything, the the store would give out discounts for open items. unbeknownst to my father, he said sure and proceeded to tell him what he was looking for. So my fathers friend picked out those items and as he was walking towards the counter with the employees, he started to open the wrapping on the packages while the employees saw him. He threw the items onto the counter and said, “hey, these are open, I need a discount.” My father turned red, and the employees turned red. He looked at them, and they looked at him. My fathers friend looked at my father and saw his face. He reassured him that it was ok. That they were making bank either way. You see, My fathers friend didn’t give a shit about nothing and the employees that we had just encountered didn’t foresee that the little secret that they had told him months ago would bite them in the butt. They told him that best buy was making a killing and wasn’t loosing any money on opened items. Little did they expect that this dude would come to the store and open anything he wanted for a discount. So… Does that still work? I don’t know, but… There were allot of interesting times and storied spent with him.
@Drunkenalien I enjoyed your Store Wars story.
@Drunkenalien
Haha! Embarrassing at the time, but a fun story to hear!
@Drunkenalien To me sounds as if he’s just taking advantage of the likely-young people working there. Not many young people are willing to call people out on this kinda stuff especially not at work.
@Drunkenalien @FeralRants I would of totally called someone out on that if I saw them doing it, but I see people that never want to say anything because they don’t give a shit about the company they work for. This happens a lot now with part timers because they have no loyalty to the job. Confrontation is a big thing nowadays. It sucks.
A year or so ago, I went through a tough negotiating phase where I tried to negotiate nearly everything.
At one time, there was an item at wally’s that was on the clearance / discontinued rack. A set of tires that fit my car… and I was in the market for tires. So I did some research, went back, asked for the manager, pitched my case as to why my offering price was very reasonable, and got a set of tires for nearly a third off the already discounted price.
When I told my boss about it, in front of his peers, his comment was essentially, how cheep do you need to be to try and knock down wally’s already discounted price?
Keep in mind, I spent 15 years negotiating purchase agreements with suppliers. I did it for 15 years because I enjoy it. Remember, a win/win situation is where you both get what you want, or agree to disagree and move on.
I also had a lot of fun negotiating with car salespeople when I wanted a new truck. So much so that when I went back a year later to negotiate on behalf of my mother, who wanted a new car, the sales manager walked by while I was working with the salesperson. He stopped, looked at me, said, “didn’t you buy a truck here last summer?” When I said yes, he asked the salesperson what I was offering and for what vehicle, looked at it for about 2 seconds and wrote his initials on it and told the salesperson it was approved, move on.
Later that afternoon my mother called and asked how annoying does someone have to be to get a used car salesperson to throw in the towel that fast?
My point to this fond trip down memory lane is that yes, you can negotiate with the manager at Best Buy. However, your mileage may vary, depending on a lot of things.
@JnKL That is a skill and an art that I envy. Thanks for sharing!
I’d say this is possible, but the definition of big ticket items is probably an order of magnitude or so bigger.
If it’s a $2000 refrigerator or a washer and dryer set, yes, negotiate. If it’s a $130 open box set of headphones, meh. They’ll probably look at you funny, as if you need to knock off the price you probably aren’t really a $130 headphones person. But if your personality is up to it, it can never hurt to ask. The worst they can do is say no, and remember you in the future as the negotiator.
Speaking of $2000 refrigerators, the Home Depot nearest me had one of those Samsung jobbies with the sideways TV in the door up front near the entrance, open box special. An employee had made up a sign for it that said “Ready for Netflix and chill!” And that’s the first time I saw a refrigerator advertised as something that would get you some action. Could have made for some interesting negotiation.
@djslack OK, I’m not a hep cat. “Chill” means getting some?
@therealjrn let’s see if this works:
/google Netflix and chill
Netflix and chill - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_and_chill
@djslack HaHa, alrighty then. I now know.
@djslack @therealjrn
/google hep cat
Hepcat - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepcat
If you want to negotiate, then try! All they can say is NO, and if they do, well, at least you know you tried.
Personally, I always try to strike a deal when shopping for larger purchases. Usually I am light hearted with a bit of humor (and a smile) sometimes it works, usually it works, but it takes practice
Good luck!!
@tinamarie1974 @djslack I’m not a big fan of ‘no’…or mayonnaise. The word ‘no’ is definitely the worst of the two.
@elimanningface I may be a bit like you. I do care about no, but more than that I don’t want to be “that guy” in any situation like that.
I got over a lot of worry about “no” because I realized that if you don’t ask for something you want you probably won’t get it.
And I’m pretty cool with mayonnaise.
A point of fact I don’t think has been mentioned, those open box headphones (or any open box stuff) are probably something they are more likely to have some flexibility on, as far as items that are not many hundreds of dollars. And if they have been sitting there unsold for a bit, they’re taking up space and in retail space costs money. So do it. Ask. And if they say no, either pony up for them at asking price or walk away, but afterwards poke yourself, feel it, and realize that you have survived the word “no”.
@tinamarie1974 So it helps if you have cleavage right? I just need to know what shirt to wear.
@therealjrn haha, uummm maybe, never thought about it. So big smile, big blue eyes and cleavage, and a flirty sense of humor…could be?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@djslack @elimanningface agree and realize that salesperson immediately moved on to there next task, not giving your bargaining another thought.
@therealjrn said:
Pix pls! W/ big smile! Eyelashes!
(of you all dressed up for negotiations!)
@therealjrn @tinamarie1974 A V-neck, of course. Don’t forget the thigh-high heeled boots.
@msklzannie @therealjrn @f001. I rarely wear t-shirts out (well maybe in the heat of the summer), and many of those are scoop neck. And no way I would wear thigh high boots while I am out shopping, my poor feet would be very upset with me!
Just normal every day clothes, nothing fancy
@tinamarie1974 uhh…I’m sure you’re a beautiful person but I think @msklzannie was giving the suggestion to @therealjrn. And while I’m sure he is a beautiful person too, no need to post any photos as suggested by @f00l.
@elimanningface @f00l @msklzannie @therealjrn oh I would LOVE to see JRN all gussied up for negotiations! And I just look like me.
@elimanningface @msklzannie @therealjrn @tinamarie1974
Yeah, I’d like to see either @therealjrn or @thefakejrn dressed up that way. (They’re twins, I suspect).
/giphy fake Samuel L Jackson apology
@elimanningface @f00l @therealjrn @tinamarie1974 Actually the comment came from the running joke/commentary about @tinamarie1974’s thigh-highs and also her repeated requests for a v-neck option on meh/mediocritee prints. But @therealjrn is free to try out the suggestion. Success would all depend on the person he interacts with.
@elimanningface @f00l @msklzannie @therealjrn @tinamarie1974 yes but we all know that tinamarie1974 is never going to give us any pics
@elimanningface @f00l @msklzannie @therealjrn @unksol Nope
It’s been a while since I worked retail, about 25 years. At the time, I worked at Silo (if anyone remembers Silo). We would negotiate, but it really came down to the item. Electronics and home entertainment carried an average of <10% markup, while appliances carried ~30%. If you came in for a new TV and matching stereo/laserdisc, you weren’t getting much off, if any. If you came in for a fridge, dishwasher, microwave, and oven, you could save yourself a few hundred by just asking nicely. Towards the end of my tenure there, the computer would tell us the lowest price “we” could give. This didn’t even require asking a manager. Sometimes it would be $1 off, sometimes it would be significant, it all depended on the mark up on that particular item. My hunch is that online retailers and the ease with which you can shop from home has narrowed margins, and this probably isn’t a thing anymore, at least not to anywhere near the extent it was in 1995. Back then, they didn’t want you to leave the store… they wanted to make the sale. Now, if you’re in the store, you’ve most likely already checked competitor’s prices in 5 minutes from your phone, and know you’re getting the best price already, and they know that.
@Leehblanc I remember Silo!
While in college (shortly after the Reformation) I sold stereo equipment. Yes, that used to be a thing. Entire stores dedicated to tuners, amplifiers, speakers, and turntables. Negotiating was expected. We lived to haggle. There were three stores within sight of each other and the most savvy customers would bring quotes back and forth because we all had a lowest price guarantees. We had “cost” books. Entire inventory listed at the lowest allowable price. But no margin, no commission. So the objective was to build a system and use high margin items like speakers and turntable cartridges to cover for the loss leader electronics. I had grown up in a family business and had worked a retail sales floor from the age of 11. Haggling is in my DNA. I made more part time than most of the full time staff. Got to be around loud music, cool gadgets, and the selling game. Looking back, may have been the best job ever. I got married right after graduation and my wife suggested a real job was in order while I went to grad school. So I became a banker. Lost any vestige of cool overnight. Ah well, she was worth it. Decades later she is still around telling me to turn the volume down on New Riders of the Purple Sage. (Panama Red was one of our go to speaker audition tunes.)
@Frcal Totally reminds me of this scene from Ruthless People.
@ruouttaurmind Yeah. Pretty much. With fewer f-bombs.
The only places that can haggle were Circuit City and Sears (Rip) as as the appliances and Electronics were commission based.
The only time I got a discount at Best Buy was when the area / district manager was in Electronics when I was shopping for a cable modem
@joebuddah
I remember, as a child, being with my parents as they haggled at Sears.
: (
(re Sears)
@f00l @joebuddah what’s a sears
@f00l @joebuddah @unksol Does anyone remember consumers? I think it was consumers.
@elimanningface Is that a regional department store?
(I have a Powr-Kraft toolbox from Montgomery Wards.)
@narfcake maybe. I vaguely remember it. @f00l had me reminiscing about stores as a child. Consumers and Toys’R’Us were it for me.
This rumor has been around for awhile. I recall my father trying to haggle at Best Buy for a laptop. Didn’t work.
@medz laptops have no margins. Appliances maybe
I just bought a new car in a no-haggle deal for the first time. I went through Costco’s auto service. I got the offered price in an email, it was a very good price (I had been shopping and researching for ~6 months prior, so I had a pretty good idea), and I went to the dealership and signed the papers. What a refreshing change from the hours of negotiating and back-and-forth involved in my previous vehicle purchases!
@macromeh Absolutely! Alas, haggling has been so ingrained in car buying that the dealers continue to play the games with their customers – and vice versa. When Saturn and Scion were around, both were sold “no-haggle”, yet there are tons of stories from former salespeople there that still dealt with hagglers on a regular basis.
@narfcake saturn was great when it was the S cars. Going away from that idea killed it. I did haggle for my 5 year old 1999 SL but she had 100K miles and a check engine light. And$1650 was a good price. And she made it to 240K miles and 2019 although I did do a transmission swap. She’s got a bad rod knocking now and it’s cheaper to swap an engine than rebuild it…
@unksol They were competitive at their inception, but as the years went by, the competitors improved and they couldn’t. GM starved them for development and other execs convinced the head honchos that Saturn owners would move into Oldsmobile.
That didn’t happen, of course, so Saturn didn’t get a chance to develop better products and the Oldsmobile brand still had to fold anyway.
@narfcake idk if it was a great strategy for a car company but I loved them. Low cost. Easy to repair. A manual is fun to drive. Engine/transmission mostly swappable for the entire decade they were made across all models.
I pulled a transmission out by hand and put one back through the wheel well twice without moving the engines. Even an engine swap is easy. I guess an easy to repair car is not a good money maker if you’re a keep her till she dies kind of person.
You can get 500HP out of one with a turbo charger if you want to though just for fun
@narfcake @unksol Hmm, not my experience at all. My son’s Saturn needed the intake gasket replaced (as did most Saturns whose engines were assembled by that defective robot). Not a fun project, given the proximity of the intake to the firewall, and complicated by all the oil that had leaked everywhere over the years.
Sharp contrast to the work of art (maintenance-wise) that is the engine compartment of my daughter’s Corolla.
The conclusion of this story is I went to Best Buy and asked them to price match Amazon’s offer and they did! I didn’t save the $249 I was hoping to save but they did cut $50 off the price. If I was capable of emoting, I would have expressed my gratitude or breakdown and ask for an additional discount but I was content (on the inside of course) to get the 25% a week or two earlier than it likely would have dropped to the $200 price point.
/image thank you everyone
@elimanningface
/giphy happy ending
@elimanningface
/giphy proud of you
@elimanningface nice! A price match is also a logical get - you have an advertised price that if they say no to, you will ostensibly just get it from their competitor instead. So good job standing up and asking for it.
So as you have seen:
best buy does match amazon prices (as long as it is sold and shipped by amazon proper and not a 3rd party). walmart will do this as well (for more than amazon, but NOT for walmart.com (lol)).
around here the best buy managers hide as far away from everyone as they can… I have never spoken to one but have been told they do exist…
I have negotiated prices down on “open box” items that are missing parts… but never needed the manager to do it.