More pricing games...

[Jay2TheRescue]

I don't do yard sales for that very reason, many items aren't priced and I'm not asking.  If only a few pieces are unpriced then I might ask but if everything is not priced then I just move on.  Too many times at yard sale or flea market feeling that I'm being gouged or do I look stupid enough to pay that price.

When we sold stuff at a flea market a few years ago we encountered the same thing you did SeSo.  Too many people thought if they talked like the stuff was worthless then we'd come down in prices.  No, what they did was make me mad.  Now I wouldn't sell to them if they offered twice as much. 
I think many dealers want the dishes priced as pieces instead of sets.  They'll just buy the stuff that will bring the big bucks in and leave the rest.  Many times I used to buy a set just to get the one or two pieces that would make it worth buying the whole set.  Sometimes I'd put the rest of the dishes in inventory depending on the pattern to try and sell and sometimes I'd donate it back.  Sometimes I did it right at the store.  I'd pick out the pieces I wanted then tell them they can resell the rest of it.  Of course I paid the full set price for those few pieces. 
 

That reminds me once a woman wanted to buy our near mint condition Fire King Tulip bowl set.  She offered me $20 "Because they're just old bowls."  I offered her a set of Pyrex Butterfly Gold bowls for $20.  No.  She wanted the tulip bowls for $20.  If she really wanted a set of bowls for $20 she would have bought the Pyrex.  We had the Fire King priced at $225.  I'm not selling it for $20.  I paid a lot more than $20 for it.

Another dealer friend of mine has a special tactic for people like that.  If they piss him off or insult him the price goes up.  I usually wish them luck in finding what they want.  They usually get the hint that I'm not ready to put a giveaway price on the item in question.  In rare cases we have to actually tell people that we will not sell the item at that price and ask them to leave because they demand 100% of your attention, and prevent you from helping people who will actually buy something.

-Jay

[foutchie]

I can't even imagine having the nerve to think offering $20 for a $225 item would even be acceptable!   What could they be thinking!?

[Big Daddy Audio]

Anyone remember the scene in Pretty Woman ( Julia Roberts flick) when she first goes shopping on Rodeo Drive?

Well, having been a cashier in a boutique on Rodeo Dr. -- let me tell you -- the writers nailed it.  From the moment you walk in, those cut-throat commission sales people have priced your garb from head to toe & have decided if you are a buyer, a tourist or a shoplifter.

When I first did retail, my Dad told me a story about a couple of bumpkins who went into a car dealership, looking for transportation.  Dressed as they were, nobody paid them much attention, except for the floor manager.  The manager approached them and just engaged them - no high pressure, just conversation (they were the same age as he was).  Turned out he sold 4 (four) Lincolns to the brothers, one for each of them and their wives - their last name happened to be.....

Rockefeller.

I guess it could be an urban legend, but what he was trying to impress upon me is that you don't take anyone for granted, and don't judge a book by it's cover (either in retail or in everyday life).  Treat everyone as you would a close friend, and things will work out in the end.  I guess that's why he (the guy in the anecdote) was the manager.

I never made it in retail.  But I've made it in life.

See you next time
bye for now

[Jay2TheRescue]

Anyone remember the scene in Pretty Woman ( Julia Roberts flick) when she first goes shopping on Rodeo Drive?

Well, having been a cashier in a boutique on Rodeo Dr. -- let me tell you -- the writers nailed it.  From the moment you walk in, those cut-throat commission sales people have priced your garb from head to toe & have decided if you are a buyer, a tourist or a shoplifter.

When I first did retail, my Dad told me a story about a couple of bumpkins who went into a car dealership, looking for transportation.  Dressed as they were, nobody paid them much attention, except for the floor manager.  The manager approached them and just engaged them - no high pressure, just conversation (they were the same age as he was).  Turned out he sold 4 (four) Lincolns to the brothers, one for each of them and their wives - their last name happened to be.....

Rockefeller.

I guess it could be an urban legend, but what he was trying to impress upon me is that you don't take anyone for granted, and don't judge a book by it's cover (either in retail or in everyday life).  Treat everyone as you would a close friend, and things will work out in the end.  I guess that's why he (the guy in the anecdote) was the manager.

I never made it in retail.  But I've made it in life.

See you next time
bye for now

Exactly.  The way things are now, even the rich are thrifty.  Then there are small businessmen like myself.  My family owns a multi million dollar business, and my newest vehicle is 10 years old.  Lord knows what anyone thinks if they see me drive up in my rusty 1981 Buick.  I haven't even washed that car in nearly 10 years.

-Jay

[Mattie]

This isn't a pricing "game;" it's just stupid:  thrift stores who have several identical items at different prices.  Naturally I'm going to buy the cheapest one!  I've seen this at Thrift Town, St. Vincent de Paul, and even at an antique store. 

As for treating customers based on their clothes, I worked in an art supply store and our customers wore anything from rags to designer duds.  It was impossible to tell who was going to spend a fortune and who was going to shoplift a cheap brush.  This reminds me of a funny story, though:  I was working in my studio and suddenly had a desperate need for an art material that was only available at a store downtown.  I caught the light rail train and sat down across from an elderly gentleman.  He looked at my paint-stained shirt and torn jeans and pulled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket.  "Here, miss, you look like you could use this," he said.  I politely declined, but I was so embarrassed!

[Jay2TheRescue]

This isn't a pricing "game;" it's just stupid:  thrift stores who have several identical items at different prices.  Naturally I'm going to buy the cheapest one!  I've seen this at Thrift Town, St. Vincent de Paul, and even at an antique store. 

As for treating customers based on their clothes, I worked in an art supply store and our customers wore anything from rags to designer duds.  It was impossible to tell who was going to spend a fortune and who was going to shoplift a cheap brush.  This reminds me of a funny story, though:  I was working in my studio and suddenly had a desperate need for an art material that was only available at a store downtown.  I caught the light rail train and sat down across from an elderly gentleman.  He looked at my paint-stained shirt and torn jeans and pulled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket.  "Here, miss, you look like you could use this," he said.  I politely declined, but I was so embarrassed!

I can understand the antique store.  Most often an antique store is not just items from one dealer.  The dealers usually either rent shelfspace, or sell everything on consignment.  Each individual dealer sets the pricing on their own merchandise.  It is possible that the lower priced item was purposefully priced under the other in hopes that it would sell first.

-Jay

[Tammy]

At our Goodwills and Sal Army stores, if an item isn't priced they will normally take it away from you, say they need to send it to the main distribution place (about 2 hrs away) to be priced then it's sent back out again.  I was listening to 2 women in the next row once talking about this and one saying that she'd just put a loose tag on a shelf on whatever she wanted.  The other said that she's done that also but you could get into trouble for tag switching.  The first one said she knew that but if all the other baskets on the shelf were priced between $1-2.00 then the one she had in her had ought to be priced about the same. 

And I thought it was interesting on Friday night when we hit 2 different Goodwill stores that the first GW had every vhs tape marked $3.00 and the 2nd one had everyone of theirs marked at $1.00. 

[alexandra]

RE: The Rodeo Drive shopping experience. Try being a middle aged woman who wants to buy and electric guitar in your average retail music store.  I'm a serious enough musician -- but I get ignored.

So, now I buy almost all my instruments used or online.  I bought a great guitar from a second hand music shop where the proprietor keeps odd hours -- but is always there.  I buy from other players looking to unload a piece they have because they need the money to buy something else (a good tactic because you know how the instrument has been treated and how it sounds). I also buy on-line.  I want to buy a hollow body this year, so I'm going back the second hand guitar store.

The one thing about thrifting, is no matter what you look like, all the merchandise is accessible to you.  The staff isn't sizing you up and figuring you're not worth it.  And you don't have to worry about the staff not knowing any specific product line (for the most part).  The two purchases that have satisfied me most over the years, were made second hand.

I did buy one of my guitar sat full retail in a "regular" store.  The salesperson who approached me to help was a female too.   But largely, I find larger volume music stores to be very frustrating as I am either ignored by the staff, or the people they have working there are so heavy metal/rock oriented, that they aren't much help with anything else.

One caveat... never pay much for a guitar at a thrift.  They're generally overpriced, and rarely in good playing condition.  I'm looking for a cheap guitar at thrift so I can paint it -- and have had no luck so far.  When I've tried to tell any thrift store employee that they've got a guitar priced way too high, they think I'm saying that to cheat them down to a lower price (and I'm doing it so that they don't cheat the person who might actually be interested in it).

Thriftily,
Alexandra
www.livingwithoutmoney.blogspot.com

[adapt]

i worked at a thrift store, and the pricers would regularly throw 99.99 price tags on old beaten no-name gitboxes. never could figure that one out.