Haggling

A big thanks goes out to my friend, Shannon, who reminded me last night on Facebook that a certain word I was looking for was haggle. Because I kept thinking heckle. I knew that wasn't right but I couldn't come up with haggle and she came to the rescue. Without such knowledge, the following story would have included the word barter in the place of haggle and that wouldn't be at all what I'm going for.

So, last night we got our Christmas tree.

We went to Lowe's and one of the employees informed my husband that he should "make a deal" with the lady selling trees.

My husband does not make deals. He asks what the price is and then pays it. Or he doesn't. But he is not a good haggler. He's missing that component of his brain. When we bought our Santa Fe, he asked for a lower price. The salesman replied, "I can't do that."

"Okay," my husband said and we proceeded to stand up and leave.

The only reason we own that car today is because the dealer called us an hour later and I did the talking.

Last night, I decided that I would use the cute six-year-old with the gaping hole in his mouth where two bottom teeth used to be to do the haggling. Might as well start 'em young. It's our only hope to counteract the genetics he may have inherited from his father. So Garrett made a beeline to a grand fir tree and would not be deterred. We showed him nobles, we tried convincing him that they are pretty, that they are easy to hang ornaments on, that they last longer, but he was standing with his arms wrapped around the choice grand fir, refusing to budge.

I sent him to get the sales lady. "Can I get this tree and give you 25 dollars?" he asked. It was on sale for $29. She showed him a more expensive noble.

"Look how pretty this one is."

He wouldn't even look at it until I promised to stand right next to his grand so that no one could swoop it out from under him--even though we were the only people in the place. He looked at. "Nice," he said, completely uninterested.

"You want the grand fir?" she asked him.

"Yes. For 25 dollars, okay?" he replied.

"Okay, sure," she answered. She turned and started to walk away while Troy picked up the tree.

Out of the corner of my mouth, I whispered, "We should have started lower."

As they trimmed the bottom and put it in the net, I paid for our tree. "I'm going to give it to you for twenty," she stated.

"Oh! Okay. Thank you!" I said.

"Your kid asked for $25. He didn't go low enough."

We are very thankful for our bargain tree. In my past experience, when one haggles, the salesperson doesn't usually go lower than the initial offer. Merry Christmas to us!