How Much for These Bananas?

There are not too many places that we shop where we are expected to haggle a price from the salesman.  I don't go to Publix and start asking the produce manager how much he is willing to take for this bunch of bananas. When I get a haircut I don't tell the barber that I only have $5 and I know that he can afford to cut my hair for that amount.

When a dealership writes $32,000 on the windshield of a new car shouldn't that be the price?  We've all been taught that the number on the windshield is just an over inflated starting point.  So why the games?

We've been looking at cars and went to a dealership to look at new car.  It was a 2013 and with the 2015 models coming in the next month we thought we'd see what they have to say.   The salesman told us several times how desperate the manager is to move on the '13 models.  So we went in to see what he could do. The salesman said he would make us a great deal.  He sat down and told us $30,000.  That's after rebates and discounts.  Really?  $2,000 off that windshield price is a "great deal"?  I don't think so.

We told him we didn't have time for this game and that his great deal wasn't all that great.  He asked us to sit down and he went to talk to the manager (didn't see that coming, did you?).    They came down a few more thousand on their third offer and I was getting annoyed with this process.  Cari and I offered a very low price that they wouldn't take.  We decided we had enough and left.

I'm sure there are people that enjoy that process and want that sense of winning when they "beat" the dealer but it just doesn't make sense to me.  The dealer is running a business, I get that, so he needs to just be honest and say, "Here's the money I need on this car".  Then I can decide if that's a fair price.   Instead we play this game of "$30,000 is the lowest price ever." followed up ten minutes later with "$27,000 is the lowest ever price.".   This game makes me feel that you are untrustworthy since you didn't offer your best price to start off with.

I think that's why I like Carmax.  There are plenty of people online that don't like their business model and people that feel they can get a better deal.  That's all good, but I like knowing that the listed price is the price.  We can trust each other from the first moment and move forward with selecting a car.  If you don't like their price then find the car you want somewhere else, no problem.

Carmax knows how much they need to sell a car for to get the money they need to make a profit and the customer knows what they are getting.   Just like picking a bunch of bananas in Publix.