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“This is a good product and I don’t want to give you nothing for it,” the customer said.
I felt encouraged. I thought I would be able to get a good price for the item that I was selling.
The customer paused a while, then offered: “How about a hundred dollars?”
I had to hold back the obscenities that were on the verge of spewing out from my mouth. As politely as I could, I told the customer, “I don’t think your offer is very reasonable.”
I laughed to make light of the issue. Inside, I wanted to tell him to f*** off. For the customer had just offered me 1/16th the original price of the product. It would have cost $1600 brand new. He knows it.
Unfortunately, he knows also that the item had been sitting in my showroom unsold for about two years. Sure, it was no longer brand new. It does look a bit worn. But it was still in perfect working condition, nothing spoilt.
Quality
The customer himself had said that it was good. If he appreciates its quality and value, could he not offer a higher price?
Eventually he did. He raised his offer to $200, then $300.
No. Even though I was at that time desperate for cash, I did not want to have any dealings with this man. I still wanted to hurl obscenities at him.
For he knew full well that in this business, used items normally sell for about half the original price, not 1/16th, not even 3/16th. He was simply trying to take advantage of me.
I wanted to tell him that even if I were squatting along Sungei Road, the place where rag and bone traders peddle their wares, I would not accept such a cheap offer.
But no. The economy was bad, business had been dead slow. I had only a few dollars left in my pocket, not much more left in my bank account. So I told him instead, “Let’s make a deal at $400.”
He did not want to. He had come to my shop hoping for a bargain. Since he could not get it, he walked away, leaving both of us unhappy.
The next few hours, I kept wondering if I had done the right thing. Should I have accepted the $300? I badly needed the money and the item had been unsold for two years. And it might continue to remain unsold! Did I just give up a rare opportunity to get rid of a dead stock?
Answer
The answer came two weeks later when somebody else, a foreigner, bought the item for $400 without much haggling. Of course I wished I could have gotten more. But I happily let him have it when I found out he was a dealer like me who was going to re-sell it at a profit.
Great. Both of us are happy.
Back to the first guy. Whatever I wrote above was from MY point of view. From my perspective, he was terribly mean, out to squeeze me as hard as he can in order to get the best possible deal for himself.
What if HE were to write an account of what happened? No doubt it would be different. But in what way?
If I may put myself in his shoes, I’d say he would write that he had been very generous in trying to help me get rid of something I could not sell for two years.
In his mind, that item in my shop window was worth nothing. Zero. Remember what he said at the very beginning? He did not want to give me nothing for it. In fact, during the course of our negotiations, he had stated it more explicitly, “Look, that thing has been lying there for so long, it’s not worth anything now.”
In his mind, he was being at least reasonable to have offered me $100 for something that was worth nothing. To have eventually tripled that offer to $300 was already stretching his generosity. He would not, could not, stretch it further.
Faith
I am not being sacarstic here. I sincerely believe that, in his mind, he was trying his best to help me. He was trying to give me some business at a time when the economy is depressed and the market is quiet.
Similar incidents happen every now and then. Customers would bargain down the price by a hefty margin - though not to the extent of 1/16th the original price - on the basis that they do not really need the item and are just buying it for the sake of helping me. “I am just going to keep it as a spare,” they would say.
Skeptics would not buy such an argument, of course. And I have enough scepticism in me to realise that customers can resort to all kinds of stories just to get the price down.
But I also have enough faith in humanity - and I have read enough books on spirituality - to believe that nobody ever sets out to be deliberately mean and nasty. Not even the world’s greatest crook or criminal. So certainly not ordinary people who are simply trying to secure a good deal from a friendly shopkeeper.
Everybody wants to be nice and kind and generous. They may not, in fact, be nice and kind and generous. But in their minds, they are.
An old beggar
As I write this, I think of a friend of mine who had been extremely generous towards me, helping me out with a huge sum of money when I was in need. She did it out of pure generosity, for an ordinary friend - not a special friend with whom she shared any intimate relationship, just an ordinary, good friend.
One evening, she and I were having dinner when an old lady came to our table and begged for money. My friend told me to ignore her, saying the lady had already come by earlier when I had gone to buy food.
But the lady persisted. She kept asking, until finally my friend told her, “I had already given you 20 cents earlier.”
Throughout the episode, I had just sat there not knowing what to do, whether to go against my friend, or go against my own sense of generosity, for I would not have minded giving her some spare change, perhaps a dollar or two.
I really felt sorry for her, to have to beg like this. Yet I hesitated long enough for her to walk away.
No doubt the old lady felt I was really mean and nasty.