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My negotiation took place at Famous Footwear, a shoe store in the local mall in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on the last day of Fall Break (Monday). I walked into the store with the intention of purchasing a few pairs of fall/winter shoes, particularly formal shoes for interviews. After looking around and finding my ¡°target¡± pair of professional black pumps, regularly priced at $79.99, my goal was cut the price in half through a combination of flinching, nibbling and aggregating (BP 1) with the sales manager, Paul.
Initially, I was not sure what I could bargain about, since I seemed to be the one with less leverage¡ªmy desire to purchase shoes before returning to school was time-sensitive. However, I had significant normative leverage in: 1) appealing to my position as the customer in an arena, where the highest standard is one that upholds customer loyalty and 2) noting that stores do not like to keep inventory for too long, which results in discount items. I also remembered from Bargaining for Advantage that one of the best guards is to negotiate with someone who cares about future relationships with you. The type of deal seemed to fall in between Tacit Coordination and Relationship (BFA Ch.9). Upon second thought, despite his desires to sell at a high price, the sales manager and I did have common grounds to start the negotiation process. Another bargaining chip that I held, which was more happenstance than strategic, was the number of other shoes I intended to buy. I already picked out three other pairs of shoes from Famous Footwear¡¯s ¡°Clearance¡± rack. One pair was the same brand (Connie) and of similar material to my target pumps, priced at $39.99. Nonetheless, beca ...