If you argue with someone in a shop or market over the price of something, we call this haggling. Although it isn’t the custom in the UK to haggle every time we shop, it is something we do for very cheap things… or very expensive things.
TRANSCRIPT
William
Hello and welcome to How To – my name is William Kremer. Coming up in today’s programme:
EXAMPLE
Customer
I mean it’s a nice computer but I was wondering if you could do me a better deal on it.
Salesman
Um, I’m not sure I can do that.
William
We’re going to look at how to haggle – that is, how to try to buy something for a lower price – or sell something at a higher price.
Now, haggling happens a lot more in some cultures than in others.
Here in Britain, people don’t normally haggle when they’re buying things, but it is OK to haggle for very expensive things or very cheap things.
So, for example, if you want to, you could haggle at the market, buying some flowers.
Now, in this situation, it sounds a bit strange to say, Can I have a discount, please? That sounds too formal.
Listen to this conversation – the customer wants to buy some chrysanthemums, which is a type of flower.
EXAMPLE
Customer
How much are the chrysanthemums?
Stallholder
Err, chrysanths – they’re £3 a bunch.
Customer
Right, OK. I’ll give you £5 for two. How does that sound?
Stallholder
Ah, go on then.
William
The flowers are £3 a bunch, a bunch being a group of flowers. What does the customer offer?
EXAMPLE
Customer
I’ll give you £5 for two. How does that sound?
William
She says, I’ll give you £5 for two. She’s offering to buy two bunches if she gets a £1 discount. The market stallholder says, Go on then, meaning, OK.
Notice that customer’s useful English structure – I’ll give you £5 for something.
EXAMPLES
I’ll give you thirty pounds for this sofa.
I’ll give you two pounds for both books.
William
But what if the market stallholder wants to make a deal? What language can he use? Listen to this conversation:
EXAMPLE
Customer
How much are the chrysanthemums?
Stallholder
Err, chrysanths – they’re £3 a bunch.
Customer
Right, OK.
Stallholder
Tell you what; since I’m in a generous mood, you can have two for a fiver.
Customer
Yeah, OK. That sounds great.
William
Did you hear what the stallholder said?
EXAMPLE
Stallholder
Tell you what; since I’m in a generous mood, you can have two for a fiver.
William
You can have two for a fiver. You can have two bunches of flowers for five pounds.
Now that little phrase, Tell you what sounds a bit strange, but people often say this when they’re trying to make a good deal. It means, How about this?
Just say, Tell you what and then make your offer.
Now I mentioned before that in Britain people haggle over cheap things and expensive things. So it’s quite acceptable to haggle if you’re buying a computer or a car.
And in this situation, it is good English to ask, Do you think you can give me a discount on that?
Notice that preposition on – Can you give me a discount on that computer?
Listen to this conversation; how does the woman ask for a discount on a new computer?
EXAMPLE
Salesman
So that’s, er, that’s the price.
Customer
OK, and can you – I mean it’s a nice computer but I was wondering if you could do me a better deal on it.
William
I was wondering if you could do me a better deal on it. That’s one way to ask for a discount.
Now listen to the next bit of the conversation. In this clip, what phrasal verb means to give something extra for the same price?
EXAMPLE
Customer
OK, and can you – I mean it’s a nice computer but I was wondering if you could do me a better deal on it.
Salesman
Um, I’m not sure I can do that. Err, I mean, what sort of thing are you looking for?
Customer
Well, some kind of discount or incentive. It’s – you know – ’cause I’m happy to pay cash, but I was wondering if you could sort of throw something in or do some kind of deal for me?
Salesman
Um well, I could probably throw in the delivery for free – that’s £20.
William
That phrasal verb throw in means to give something extra for the same price.
EXAMPLE
Customer
But I was wondering if you could sort of throw something in or do some kind of deal for me?
Salesman
Um well, I could probably throw in the delivery for free – that’s £20.
William
The salesman offers to throw in the delivery of the computer, worth £20. Now, here’s another very useful phrasal verb for haggling – knock off. But what does knock off mean?
EXAMPLE
Salesman
I’ll tell you what I can do for you.
Customer
OK.
Salesman
I can knock – I can knock forty off it. That’s pretty much my absolute maximum discount that I could offer.
Customer
Forty?
Salesman
Yeah.
Customer
Discount of forty?
Salesman
Yeah, that’s pretty much the best I can do for you and, err, you can – you can walk away with it now for 406.
William
To knock some money off something means to reduce the price. The salesman offers to knock forty pounds off the computer.
That’s all for this week but if you go to the How To webpage on bbclearningenglish.com you’ll find a listening exercise which uses a complete clip of this conversation.
And I hope today’s language will be useful to you and that it will save you some money! Goodbye.
Expressions from the programme:
Phrases for customers
I’ll give you £10 for…
- it.
- both books.
- the lot. (the lot – everything on sale here)
…and you’ve got a deal! – This is a very confident way of making an offer. You might use this if you have already been haggling for a while and have almost fixed a price:
- Salesperson: How about £42?
- Customer: 40 and you’ve got a deal!
For more expensive items:
- Could you give me some sort of discount?
- I was wondering if you could do me a better deal on that?
Phrases for customers and salespeople
Shall we say £50?
Let’s say fifty, shall we?
Let’s make it a round fifty, shall we? (‘A round number‘ – a number that ends in one or more zeros, e.g. 50, 100, 1000)
Phrases for salespeople
(I’ll) tell you what (I can do for you). – Use this before you make an offer.
Tell you what – how about I give you the computer and a printer for 450?
How does that sound? – Use this after you make an offer.
- Free delivery and an extended warranty – how does that sound?
- I’ll give you two for £5 – how does that sound?
- You can have a 10% discount – how does that sound?
And you could take it home today. – Use phrases like this to encourage the buyer to accept your deal.
- Let’s say £500, and you can walk out the shop with a beautiful watch right now.
Say that you cannot offer a lower discount:
- That’s the best I can do for you, I’m afraid.
- A 10% discount – that’s all I can do, I’m afraid.
- And that’s pretty much the maximum discount I could offer.
Other phrases
To throw something in – To get something extra for the same price.
- Is there any chance you could throw in a bigger monitor for that price?
To knock some money off – To reduce the price by a certain amount.
- I can knock fifty pounds off that – that makes it £230.
Price match – To equal the price that a customer has seen in another shop on the same item.
- We can do a price match, if you’ve seen it cheaper elsewhere.
- We should be able to match the price for you, if you tell me where you’ve seen it for less.