I was tempted few days before Valentine to approach some of the jewelry shops in ABC dbayyeh and see what they got to offer. Aside from the incredibly unrealistic prices they had for the tiniest of items, what caught my attention and made me laugh were the discounts the sales people gave me.
One diamond bracelet caught my attention at the first place I checked so I asked the guy there how much it cost and he answered me: 9700$ is its original price (then he starting typing some random numbers on his old fashioned calculator) and told me price after discount is 4500$ and we can still negotiate the price if you are serious about buying it.
Another place I checked had a pendant for around 14,000$ which becomes for ONLY 8000$ after discount. Of course I got the “akeed messieur hayda mich ekhir se3er” response after the 7000$ drop in price.
And it was the same for almost all shops except one or two who gave only a 10-15% discount.
I ask here: Why would they price it this high and then discount that much? No one is that stupid to think they are doing him a great discount because they apparently do this for everyone, so why can’t they price it reasonably?
I guess the price depends on the customer. If you look like a wealthy guy (arab) you do not get a discount.
Hayda naseb 3al 3alan, mfakreen 7alon bi shi sou2 sha3bi aw mitil l beye3een li 3al tari2, bikoun l gharab bi 20 000, bitdal tsher3o la tekhdo bi 5000 bil ekhir 😛
Twisted Lebanese Mentality!
I was wondering the same thing when i bought my then Fiance her wedding gift (as if i wasn’t enough :P). Mounsier, ba3ed el Khassem it turned out less than half the posted price. i was surprised and inquisitive, the dude at Zgheib with the long hair… very nice guy btw, told me that it’s got to do with diamonds, that applies to almost anything with diamonds. but it begged a question,
I’m buying a 1500$ necklace for 750, if ever i want to sell it again, how much is it actually worth? is it worth 750 plus used devaluation or is it 1500 – devaluation? still don’t get it… I hope my wife never needs to sell it back, they might tell her (like a supposedly respected jeweler said to my mother once) Hayde mish min 3enna! (that wasn’t sold by us) bi Sharafak?
Blood Diamonds rule our market, Gold and gems are over-hyped, Stainless Steel is the way to go…
This is an old simple and commonly used sales trick. It’s about ‘expectations management’. You will not believe how many people fall for that.
Also, like one reader pointed out, this is also about ‘segmentation’ , where richer customers pay more and poorer ones pay less. This has always been a holy grail for retailers..
Najib, seriously, I want to marry you. :)))
With or without the jewelry?
That’s how jewelers make money. They can price it at whatever number they want and you won’t have a microscopic clue why.
@Najib
Without. The fact that you actually went through all that makes a huge difference to a woman. 😉
That is so sweet of you View over Beirut.
Well what can I say she is totally worth it.