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Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

Why does buying a car in America involve so much (or even any!) negotiation at all? I guess it's a form of price discrimination?

I just tried to figure out (via Google) whether it's common in eg Germany---but what I found what mostly only about negotiations for used cars.

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Literally, the only things you negotiate in the US are cars and houses. Not groceries nor clothes nor millions of other things. Perhaps a few minor things here or there.. but we pretty much just stick to the basics.

Mattresses are negotiable. I offered to pay cash and they took like 40% off the price. I was kind of dumbfounded.

Did they put it through the books. They may be able to sign it off as damaged goods and pocket the cash hiding the sale from revenue and upstream managers.

First time I bought a mattress I wasn't aware of this. Second time, I got the bedframe, box spring, and mattress protector included, and still managed to knock ~ %20 off the price. I try to negotiate everything now, and have had some measure of success. I will admit that negotiating is mostly, to me, a fun game, rather than a way to save money.

That depends on how broadly you define negotiating. For example, price matching and acceptance of competitor coupons are both forms of negotiating. But you're right, even for retailers that offer price matching or competitor coupons, the vast majority of purchases don't involve any form of negotiating.

Healthcare. If you ended up paying from pocket.

>Why does buying a car in America involve so much (or even any!) negotiation at all?

It's just another choice. There are plenty of car dealers here that offer a "no-haggle" experience if that's what you want.

It's normal in Europe. I've never paid the sticker price for a car.

Buying anything above, say, 100€? Smile, say 'discount?' and they will through in something for free or give a few percent off.

And that's before any kind of negotiation (unless you count asking nicely as negotiation). And I mean anything. I've done it in many places. Is there anywhere where that does not work?

> Is there anywhere where that does not work?

Your local Apple Store in the USA.

can you expand on the "anything"? I'm having doubts that I can negotiate the price of eg. a TV bought in a hypermarket (Walmart, to give a US example) ?

Hm, I haven't tried that yet, but I think it is possible. It usually works very well in specialized and non-chain stores. If you cannot find a salesperson with any decision power it might be harder.

You can try asking the next time you buy something big. The worst that can happen is them saying no, if you really asked nicely.

PS: I dented a rental car and got a huge bill. I called them up and basically said 'discount please?' They gave me a 20% discount, and that was without any kind of arguing or confrontational talk, just the question. So it's not just for stores.

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