i can see asking about the price of the bike, but requesting that they don't charge you tax just seems strange to me. and very unwise for the shop if they do it.

The fortunate thing is that many retailers see your type coming, up prices by 20%, then offer you a 10% discount.

Sorry, there's more to retailing than "simple economic laws", there's a personal element too, meaning real people and relationships are involved. Continue to not allow human beings to make a living providing service and you'll end up with a world full of nothing but vending machines.

For the record, I regularly see 10% differences in prices between our LBS's on some of the items they carry. So yes, I think there is some give there.

A reasonable opening is, "I'm interested in this bike, but $xxx seems a little steep. I've seen it elsewhere for $yyy, but I'd like the convenience of buying it here and having it maintained here. Is there anything you can do for me? That is, are you empowered to haggle?"

On items that cost more than $500, I have a 1 in 2 success rate in getting 10% or so off. YMMV.

Here is my experience with bargaining: At my LBS which is not a chain store, they have an bi-annual sale which almost all bikes in the store (and even the ones you have to order) are around ~10% off or more depending on the price/type of the bike. About three months before the sale, I talked to the manager and asked about the sale and what discount would be given to the bike I wanted. It ended up being $100 off so I asked him if there was anything else he could do about giving me a good price. I pretty much ended up saying that I would buy the bike that day if he could give me the sale price. I was either going to buy it that day or wait until the sale, I wasn't going to pay full price. He agreed and I ordered the bike that day and bought it when it as soon as it came in.

I agree. Here's the thing, when I buy from, say, Walmart or Target, that's about as impersonal as it gets. Pretty much all that matters there is the price. No one at those stores knows who I am, or cares.

But things are sometimes different with a small, locally-owned business. I certainly know of locally-owned businesses that are just as machine-like as chain stores. But I also deal with small shops where the owners know me by name, where the employees know me by name, where I get service well above and beyond the mere item that I'm buying. And therein lies the problem: it is difficult to monetize some things. How does the local hardware store that lets me walk downstairs into their repair area to talk directly with the guy servicing my snowblower charge me for that? And when that same guy greats me by name every time I see him around town, how do I pay for that? How do I pay for his freely-given advice? How does the bike shop owner who hands me a part and says "go home and see if it fits first, and then come back and buy it" charge me for letting me try out the part?

I don't like to throw my money away, but there are sometimes intangibles that will lead me to think about more than just raw price. I do care about price. But I also happen to care a lot about personal service, and I will go a little extra to do business where people know me and are happy to see me walk through the door, and where they treat me as more than just another customer.

To the original poster: there's no harm in politely asking whether the shop owner can do better. Be nice about it. Accept the answer with grace. (I doubt the dealer has much room to move on a bike at the price you're talking about). There is also no harm in saying that you like a bike, but that you can't afford the price. Once I mentioned that I liked a specific frame, but that there was a very similar, competing frame for $300 less that I felt would be a better match to my limited funds. I was being honest with the shop owner, not trying to jerk him around. He actually checked his pricing and came down by that $300. And he did that knowing that I would very likely have ordered the other frame from him. He would have won either way, but he had room to maneuver on price on the frame that I liked, and he did.

+1 win.

/thread

I recently bought a Giant FCR2 from the LBS. I went in there intending to get the FCR3 but they didn't have my size. I asked if I considered the much more expensive FCR2 if he could give me a break on the price. He told me that these sell too good to be marking them down, at least an honest answer. He was willing to give a little break on other brands he was carrying like Scotts and Norcos but I was already sold on the FCR2. When another employee rang it in he told me they didn't charge me PST which is an 8% tax here so that made me happy and was unexpected.

I'm sure I could've gotten it a little cheaper online somewhere (I paid $819CDN, yeah our dollar is pretty much par but things are still more expensive up here) but this store offers free lifetime adjustment on brakes and derailers so I think that little extra money I paid will eventually be compensated for plus I'd like to have a relationship with a LBS. I hope I didn't offend him by trying to haggle.

Ryan

I've found that you never, ever, have to pay full price for anything...if you bargain or
look for other ways to fill the want/need.

There is a whole wide world of used, overstock, seconds, etc. to draw from if retail won't budge
on the price. I'm not shy about being a "bottom feeder" and using all these non-retail markets
to buy whatever I need.

After all.....everything you buy new is used the moment you take possession of it!!! :D:D

The shop does have the ability to say no to someone tryign to bargain. If they feel pressured to sell at a price lower than they can afford, it's not my problem. That said, I try not to be pushy and to feel out what's reasonable. When I bought a Trail Rat at my LBS, I asked if they could split the difference between their price and the online price; they were happy to do so, and actually thanked me for buying at the shop. (That they know me probably helped.)

Keep in mind that a shop makes money on repairs as well. When they fix something minor and say "don't worry about it" when I ask how much for the damage, I often insist on payign them something (unless it's a refinement of recent work).

Does anyone know how much the average shop makes in repair work vs. sales?

I talked my way into $50 off my bike. It didn't take hard bargaining at all. I now go to that LBS for 90% of my stuff so they did pretty good despite getting a few less $ on the bike itself. Also, next year I'm looking at a road bike, guess which shop I'll be going back to?

Exactly. You can sometimes find coupons or wait for sales, but most LBS sell at or near retail on new bikes. All of the LBS that had my bike all had the same price. All were willing to wiggle $5 to $10 on price, but only 1 offered lifetime free adjustments. It's a no brainer who won my business.

Touche

There is never harm in asking. I have been very surprised over the years about how negotiable things really are in many types of stores. This is particularly true if you are nice about it. I think asking for a discount because you can get an item somewhere else cheaper but want to support your local store is reasonable. Asking to pay no sales tax places them in an unfair postion. Good luck.

I haven't negotiated the price of anything I've bought at my LBS.

Then again, I don't complain when they let me buy a workstand at their cost (they knew it was my birthday ;) ) or when they answer my inquiry about getting a stem by handing me a milk crate full of stems and saying, "Take what you need."

That's the level of personal attention that JonathanGennick was talking about, and that's why I'll pay for the markup.

I bought a Track Pro, a pair of SIDI Dominator 5s, some Crank Bros pedals, and a few other parts on a slow day in off-season at a small-ish bike shop in the city. It should go without saying that when dropping close to $2k in those conditions I got a deep discount on the SIDIS, 20 percent off everything I bought there in a month, and a good 3-4 hours of friendly BSing as the mechanics happily built and had me test out the bike. Obviously if you are spending serious cash you will get the VIP treatment without even asking, but if it's a small shop trying to bargain on a $600 bike for anything more than a few dollars of merch is pushing it pretty hard.

edited to agree with the "human element." Just because you might get butthurt over not getting a free doodad today doesn't mean by becoming a repeat customer you won't get a good discount or more friendly help in the future. After I bought that bike and had it powdercoated the same mech who built my bike dropped what he was doing and chased out the bottom bracket while-I-waited, for free. If you spur off getting friendly with a shop by buying a bike there they will remember you and treat you well later. It equals out.