I dont understand any of this. Why are people saying B&M, with higher overhead, somehow the folks you can negotiate down? If anything it seems they would be the sort to stick to MSRP more than anything since their service is what I would assume, superior than a simple online retailer? Or is it simply that they are THAT desperate seeing as how B&M is dying, theyre willing to bend over backwards even further?
I haven't read past this post so if this has been said already my bad for repeating. It is counter intuitive, but a B&M store if they hold stock should be quite willing to negotiate price, unless they are so well established and flush with cash. I know as I had been in retail for many years. Once you have actual stock, it begins to age as inventory soon and once it exceeds the 30 day point, usually by then the invoice to the supplier becomes due. The merchant is now paying interest on their line of credit, eroding the profit margin from that point forward. It depends of course, some businesses will be in better shape than others, but this is generally speaking true for all but the most well set independent dealers.
An online retailer should be flexible as they carry no stock, often anyway, and in that case they are simply drop-shipping. If that is the case the full MSRP profit margin which I suspect is around 30% has some room to shed, but not as much as you think so big discounts aren't likely, but I always try to get tax covered at least.
Clearly, the higher the price of an item, the more it becomes worth negotiating price. If the item is only say $400, maybe not enough profit left over to bother with dropping the price, but if you are now selling something where the full profit margin is say $700, you might be willing for the little work of arranging drop shipping take a quick and easy $500 instead. It depends on the timing. Catch the vendor when their cash flow is low and invoices are coming due, or taxes etc., suddenly they may be more flexible. Always call or e-mail and ask for a reasonable discount, don't ask for a ridiculous sum, they need a profit that is viable. If one vendor says no, ask another, if you are lucky enough to be in a country where there are many possible vendors, by all means, play them against each other and just keep asking. That is business. If there were multiple suppliers for their product lines you can bet your life that they will shop around for the best wholesale price.
At the end of the day it is just business, they aren't your friends and the common element is that they want your money and you want their product. They want as much of your money as they can get and you want to pay as little as possible. People are embarrassed I think to ask for a discount because they think the friendly sales staff actually care about them as people. It isn't that they couldn't care, but at the end of the day the entire relationship is based on money. Save some of your money, ask around. The public price isn't the only price. Many wholesale account agreements control the published MSRP, but unadvertised prices are up to the vendor. It is their merchandise so they can sell it for what they want, they just can't advertise being flexible on price.
