Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 849, Bargaining with Store Owners.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 849.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, become a member, and support this podcast.
This episode is a dialogue between Connie and Ivan about bargaining trying to get a good price at a store.
Let's get started.
All right.
He says it's $60.
$60.
That's actually a great price, but let's see if I can talk him down a little.
You should never accept the starting price, and the prices in these stores are all negotiable.
Ask him what his rock bottom price is for the vase.
He said that he'll take $50. but not one penny less.
The vase is really a steal at $50, but maybe he's still willing to bargain.
Tell him that I won't pay a penny more than $40.
I told him, and he says that at that price he'd be giving it away.
I don't think he's going to budge.
I think you should just buy it.
He doesn't look like he's willing to haggle with you.
Don't be impatient.
Good things come to those who wait.
Tell him that I'm ready to walk away if he doesn't take $42 for it.
Hey, where's he going?
He says that he's walking away because he doesn't sell to cheap Americans.
Huh.
Our dialogue begins with Connie saying to Ivan, You speak McQuillanese.
McQuillanese, like McQuish, is a very rare language.
Actually, the ending "-ese-" is used in a couple of different ways.
It can be used to describe a language, for example, Japanese or Chinese.
Those are languages spoken in Japan and China, respectively.
We also use that suffix -ese- at the end when we are talking about the particular kind of language, for example, for a certain type of work or for a certain purpose.
We used to talk about in linguistics something called motherese, which is the kind of language that a mother uses with her child.
I think they call it caretakerese nowadays.
But the idea is that the ESE usually indicates, or often indicates, that we're talking about a language.
And here we're talking about McQuillanese as a language.
Ivan speaks McQuillanese, so Connie says, ask the store owner the price of this vase.
A vase, V-A-S-E, is a ceramic or glass object usually used for putting flowers into.
Ivan says, all right, and then I guess he speaks McQuillanese to the store owner.
Then he says to Connie, he says it's $60.
Connie says that's actually a great price, a very good price.
But let's see if I can talk him down a little.
To talk someone down means to get someone to agree to a lower price than...
He has offered you to get someone to lower the price on something they're selling.
That's to talk someone down.
The buyer talked down the seller $50.
He talked him down.
Connie says you should never accept the starting price.
The starting price is the price that the seller tells you first.
It's $100.
And you say, oh, no, $100.
No, no, no.
How about $50?
The starting price there would be $100, what the seller tells you initially at first.
Connie says you should never accept the starting price, and the prices in these stores are all negotiable.
Negotiable, N-E-G-O-T-I-A-B-L-E, means that they can be changed.
When you go into a typical American store, especially a large store such as a department store that sells clothing and furniture, usually the prices are not negotiable.
You can't take a shirt and go up and talk to one of the employees at the store and say I'll give you 10 for this shirt, even though the price is 15.
However, in many countries and in smaller stores, perhaps in the US, prices are negotiable and you can say well, that's too high, and then you give a different price.
Connie says, ask him what his rock bottom price is for the vase.
Rock bottom price is the lowest possible price you will accept, the least amount of money.
This, of course, is a strategy, a technique in bargaining, in trying to get a low price for something.
You try to get the other person to give you the lowest possible price that he is willing to give you.
And so you may ask for his rock-bottom price, although usually that's only something you might ask for after you've already negotiated a little bit back and forth.
Ivan says he said he'll take $50, but not one penny less.
The expression not one penny P-E-N-N-Y less means that this is the absolute minimum or lowest price, that the person is not going to lower the price anymore beyond that point.
A penny is one penny.
Cent, one American cent.
One dollar is a hundred cents, or a hundred pennies equals one dollar, and Connie says the vase is a real steal at 50.
A steal, S-T-E-A-L, here means a very good deal.
Something that is sold at a very low price.
Something expensive sold very cheaply.
Steel has some other meanings in English, however.
Make sure you look at the learning guide for those.
You don't want to use the wrong meaning of steel.
Here, steel means a very good bargain.
Connie says maybe he's still willing to bargain.
He's still willing meaning, even though he said that is his lowest price, maybe he'll go a little lower.
To bargain, as we said before, means to negotiate, means to get a lower price by talking to someone.
Then Connie says, tell him, the seller, that I won't pay a penny more than $40.
So the seller said he wouldn't accept anything lower than $50, not one penny less, he said.
Connie is now saying that she won't pay a penny more than 40, meaning 40 is the maximum, the most she will pay.
Ivan then, of course, talks to the store owner in McQuillanese.
We don't get to hear that part.
He says I told him and he says that at that price he'd be giving it away.
At that price, meaning at forty dollars, he would be giving it away.
Of course, to give something away is a phrasal verb meaning to give something for free.
You're not even asking for any money for it.
Of course the shop owner is not giving it away, but he's using that expression to say that he can't possibly sell this vase at 40.
It's too cheap.
He won't make any money.
Ivan says, I don't think he's going to budge.
To budge means to move a small amount or to change your position.
If someone says well, this is my price and I'm not going to budge, he or she means that they're not going to change their position.
They're not going to change the price.
Ivan says, I think you should just buy it.
He doesn't look like he's willing to haggle with you.
To haggle, H-A-G-G-L-E, or to haggle, same word.
My pronunciation is a little different.
Means to negotiate, to bargain, to try to get a lower price.
So it's the same as to bargain.
Connie says, don't be impatient.
Good things come to those who wait.
This is an old expression.
Good things come to those who wait.
If you wait enough, if you wait a long time, eventually you will have some good things coming to you.
The idea is that even though there are difficulties in waiting, it may not be very pleasant.
When you wait, you get good things after that waiting period.
Connie says, tell him that I'm ready to walk away if he doesn't take $42 for it.
To walk away means, in this case, to end the discussion, to stop the negotiation, to say okay, I'm not going to buy it at all.
Goodbye.
Connie says, hey, where's he going?
Where is he going?
Ivan says...
He, the store owner, says that he's walking away because he doesn't sell to cheap Americans.
Cheap, C-H-E-A-P.
Is a low price, but here it's used as an insult.
It means someone who doesn't want to pay very much money for anything, even though that thing is worth the money.
Someone who is cheap is someone who doesn't like to spend money and will often sacrifice rather than spend more money.
Will often say, okay, I'm not going to do anything because I don't want to spend any money.
It's usually an insulting term to call someone cheap.
If you ask a girl out on a date...
And then at the end of the date, you say, oh, why don't we each pay our own bill?
If you're a man, the girl might think you are cheap.
And she'd probably be right.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You speak McQuillanese.
Ask the store owner the price of this vase.
That's actually a great price, but let's see if I can talk him down a little.
You should never accept the starting price, and the prices in these stores are all negotiable.
Ask him what his rock-bottom price is for the vase.
He said that he'll take $50, but not one penny less.
The vase is really a steal at $50, but maybe he's still willing to bargain.
Tell him that I won't pay a penny more than $40.
I told him, and he says that at that price he'd be giving it away.
I don't think he's going to budge.
I think you should just buy it.
He doesn't look like he's willing to haggle with you.
Don't be impatient.
Good things come to those who wait.
Tell him that I'm ready to walk away if he doesn't take $42 for it.
Hey, where's he going?
He says that he's walking away because he doesn't sell to cheap Americans.
Good things come to those who wait each week for the next amazing episode of ESL Podcast with the amazing scripts by our own Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
