IN SALE TIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

IN SALE TIME

WOMAN'S WEAKNESS JHE BEST OF THE BARGAIN BY CHRISTINE COMBER " Oh, yes," said the dealer in secondhand goods. " I always state my price rather high, if you catch my meaning, and then .come down a bit, reluctantlike, and then all of a sudden I say in a kind of fed-up way, ' Oh, well, I'll let it go at seven ten or whatever the, figure might be.' And it catches them nearly every time. Nearly every time!" vhe added triumphantly. " People must believe they're getting the best of the bargain, or they get 110 kick out of buying. But " —and here he wagged his finger solemnly—- " if I was to say seven ten straight out they'd want it down to seven pounds before they'd look twice at it." I suppose, when one really comes to consider the watter, we all —and especially we women —love to feel that we are getting the best of the bargain. We pride ourselves on being good managers and good shoppers, and on the fact that no salesman can take advantage of us. In fact, we remind ourselves somewhat of the lady who was reputed to have travelled through Italy with a vocabulary of just two words: Quanto?" (how much?) and " troppo " (too much!). How zealously we watch the scales (though ostensibly it is the grapes and pineapples on their overhead strings that attract us!) while the Indian weighs out our plums and potatoes and nectarines! And how an extra couple of ounces does add to our satisfaction in our morning's shopping! How we dislike the " mean " shopkeeper who painstakingly breaks a biscuit in half in order ,to give us our exact , lawful weight! And how a- free sample or a gift or a coupon can fill our bargainhunting hearts with joy. Yet, as with almost all the fundamental human impulses—and surely we can call this love of getting the best of the bargain fundamental enough—it can be evidenced in various petty, almost despicable, ways. There is the individual who counts her 'lunches and dinners' and after-, noon teas in order to attend more than she gives; and the woman who never has change for the -tram fares when accompanied by a friend.' There are people who tot up "the value of Christmas presents received and given in the. hope of finding have scored a " win;"' and the employers who put their clock back five minutes to be sure of getting the last few minutes frequently lost in the rush to be away on time. I have always held that the man who steps off the car with a glow of satisfaction at not having been asked for his twopenny fare, or who is given too much change on a Friday night by 3; flustered salesman and pockets it, is actuated by this same impulse rather than by dishonesty. One can almost hear his indignant, purple-faced, " What? Dishonest? I? How dare you, sir? How dare you?" To, pursue this entertaining study further, one may enter any of the auction rooms in the city,': A piece _of carpet is held up for inspection. Bidding commences slowly, lethargically; only the auctioneer's gibes and jokes keeping it from stopping altogether. Suddenly one of the apathetic bidders finds that she has a rival in another of the apathetic bidders. At once that piece of carpet takes on a new value for both of them. Brows furrow, lips tighten, and the bids are snapped out tensely, as if that worn strip of carpet has become of the utmost necessity to the welfare of both rivals. The same spirit is, of course, fully in evidence at any of the drapers' seasonal; sales now in" full swing. Unless a garment or a half-yard remnant is greatly desired by at least four other purchasers it is quite obviously not a bargain. Lest any stray male reader should smile, at this evidence of feminine weakness —if weakness it be —let me add that the worst auction room offender I have ever known was a man. Every sale day he would return home burdened with some huge useless vase, or a set of flower pots, or yet another chair that he couldn't resist the opportunity of acquiring. " It was such a ibargain," he would plead apologetically; and some day, should same callous heir cause the "contents of his house to be Bold by auction; all those heterogenous " bargains " will be dragged to light from the attic where they have languished long since, to be sent off again on fresh adventures. But the riddle for which I can find no solution is that, if the housewife wants the very best joint at the very lowest price, and the butcher is determined that it. shall be as' nearly the other way about as possible; and if the mistress is determined to get a day and a-quarter's work from the char, while the latter haX already decided " not to bust meself for nobody," just what really does happen? Does the person'who sets out so zealously to get the best of the bargain ever really get it? Or is there not in us all something that responds to generosity and applaud fair play? All one can say with definiteness iij that the impulse is in us all; and it seems there to stay.