The Art of Asking for a Discount #018

Joel and I are going to ask you to please subscribe. It just really helps us out, gives the podcast like a little boost in the in the ratings, and it starts getting recommended it to other other folks. So, yeah, if you found any of these episodes and topics particularly helpful, um, yeah, we would love for you to spread the word, but but specifically subscribe on on whatever app you happen to use. That would be awesome, and also join our Facebook group.

It's really funny we're posting different things throughout the week and uh having interesting conversations about you know, some of the topics that we're covering here on the podcast, and then other topics that just kind of out of the blue that people ask or that we're posting articles too. I'm enjoying it. Yeah, there's like minded folks up there, no doubt. All right, Matt, real quick, I wanted to tell you about this really cool website that one of my co workers sent my way because she knows I

love saving money and I love Kraft Beer. And there's this really cool website called secret hopper dot com and it is what it sounds like. It is secret shopping. Yeah, and so if you go to secret hopper dot com, you can sign up to be a secret shopper at breweries.

And essentially what what you're doing is the brewery is you know, they don't know that you're a secret shopper, and you go into the brewery and you order some beers, you try them out, and then you write a report about what your experience was like, and you get your beers reimbursed by secret hopper dot com. Yeah, not just the beers too, but it's about like the space and like the tasting room and just like the whole experience. Yeah. Yeah, So it's a really cool idea. I love what they're doing.

If you like free beer, if you like saving money and you don't mind, and who doesn't, right, Yeah, So I mean if you're listening to this podcast, those things probably all kind of get your radar buzzing. Uh. And so Secret Hoppers a really cool site. Um. Sadly they're not available in Atlanta right now, so I couldn't take advantage, um, but definitely something I would be interested if they were available in my town. So go to secret hopper dot

com if you want to check that out. I just thought that was neat and that the people that listen to this podcast in particular would kind of gravitate towards hopefully you're listening to this though. We want to be Secret Hoppers in Atlanta because we're already there anyways. Yeah, we're going to be drinking the beer we're going to be drinking in the space, so like, yeah, pay us to do it. We'll we'll definitely take that job, gladly

do it. Something that's kind of related and I guess to what we're talking about, Asking for a Discount, which is a podcast episode that aired years ago now, and funny enough and I both have listened to it, we've never talked about it. It's of this American Life episode and I forget what the episode is called, but it is. I think they called the good Guy disc Yeah, yeah, that's what I was gonna say, something along like good guy, good guy discount, something like that, but which I had

already kind of been fascinating. Yeah, I've already been implumenting like a lot of these strategies in my life before

I heard that. But and I listened to that episode and I enjoyed it, But I also think, uh, that concept, I think what we've gotten here is is different than the way they approached it there, and and I think there are some ways that in that episode, essentially his premise was asking people for the quote unquote good guy discount, and that felt like a little awkward to me because he said that people would just kind of look at him and be like huh yeah, and he'd be like, well,

you know, I'm a good guy, Like you're a guy, good guy, let's can I get the good guy discount? And that just seems like an awkward woid over. Yeah, it definitely seems a little more kitchy. Yeahah, And obviously it fit well for what they're doing for the show, So certainly we want to kind of address today we're gonna talk about some of those things, but we're gonna dive more into like the meat of ways to ask for a discount to you. But it's a great podcast though,

This American Life. Give some other favorites that that you listen to, oh Man, totally. I'll tell you a couple of the ones I listened to, and and I'll be honest, I'm such a nerd. Most of them are personal financial related, I really. I think the one I can't get enough of, probably my favorite that I love listening to is How I Built This with Guy Robs. Yeah, freaking love that one. The guy Roses. Uh, he's everywhere. Yeah, I didn't really. I mean, he's got so many shows now and he's

a baller. That's my favorite. And I think too, it's it's in that sphere that I enjoy. But it feels a bit of business, a little bit of like personal story narrative. Yeah, it feels a little more like like can't eating candy though that I can get It's like I can get away with it. But because it's still in my sphere, you know what I'm saying, Like, it's not quite as like nuts and Bolts personal finance it feels like it's a story. Guilty pleasure is because it's

a story. I I enjoy that a lot. Yeah, I dig that one too. Something. I mean, I've been surprised that some of the people he's he's had on where I was like, I'm not going to be interested in this one at all, and they're totally fascinating. You know, the five Guys. Have you listened to five? Yes? That's uh. He started out literally making burgers like in Philly or something like somewhere up north with like his brothers. Yeah, and he just didn't seem to have any interest in

it to a certain extent. Who I was. I thought it was amazing that he's gotten so far. He accidentally became like the fastest growing burger place, you know, nationwide. It's insane. It really is incredible, And there's so many good stories like that. Do you ever listened to ninety nine p I but I have friends are rape about it. Yeah, it's worth worth checking out. I like that one. So. So I used to be a designer, and so this podcast is all about design and they look at all

sorts of design. So everything from some simple like a product that you can hold and use every day to like cities and just everything, and they just really go into the history of it and talk about how it's implemented and just yeah, I really dig it. It's kind of a nerdy design. It keeps me um connected of my graphic design routes, and uh, yeah, I like it all right, you have to check it out, Okay, I will. I will. A couple of others that I'm into. I

really like Radical Personal Finance. Um, this guy Joshua does that podcast, and he's he's really good, really smart guy. Enjoy listening to him. Another one if you're into real estate investing, Bigger Pockets. I don't listen to all of the episodes of either of those, but I really like kind of the direction they go in and what they're

talking about. Yeah, and every and I love to hear, you know, real estate investing stories, how people are doing it, how people are doing it differently than me, and I can kind of implement some of those strategies into my life. Uh. And then I really love long form interviews. I've just always been a fan. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. I used to like Charlie Rose because he's kind of disgraced now at this point, but I

loved his show. That was like my favorite. And Joe Rogan is kind of doing that in podcast and everyone knows that he's got essentially the number one or two most listen to podcasts out there. But he does really great long form two three, sometimes longer our interviews with people. Some of those are in saying I'm just like, how can you just keep going? Yeah, but some of the

people are incredible. I again another one. I don't listen to all of them, but if there's an interesting person on their compelling, compelling individual, I totally willing to give two and a half hours of my time. Maybe I should listen to more of like the Personal Finance podcast,

considering that's kind of what we do. But really the like the most personal money like Personal Finance and Money I kind of get, is like the MPR Planet Money, and I'm pretty religious about it that I really like them. I literally listened to every single one, even though it's like NPR, it's a kind of sterile, it's kind of cleaned up, sanitize. Maybe when they're they're not drinking booze on those, I mean, I guess occasionally there was that

one about vodka. Yes, oh my gosh, maybe we should link to them one because that was a man I thought that was an amazing and amazing story. And then one of my other favorites, Actually, I listened to a bunch of h Atlanta United Soccer podcast. Oh yeah, yeah, like a bunch. I don't know if we've talked about how many I listened to you, but you you listened to like at least two. How many do you listen to?

War now? O'm oh my gosh, I'm trying to cut one of them out, but two of my favorite hosts on one of them actually just started a new one. It's called Unrelegated H A t L. I believe they've only released one episode, but I listened to it, and

it's gonna be good. It's like right in the sort of vein that I want to hear stuff talked about where it's it's not too technical, where it's just a bunch of like dudes that played soccer in high school and are now kind of like you know that coach as well, Like they don't get super technical, they keep it light, but at the same time they hit all the good good knowledge I want to I want to hear discussed sort of like maybe we do with personal finance.

I don't know, Yeah, I know. I mean I think we aim to be and I don't know that we've really told our listeners. It's like we aim to be that place kind of in the middle. Like I think there's people out there that have personal finance podcasts that are like super hardcore, and then there's other people that are completely just winging it. Uh, And I think you and I were sitting around literally drinking beers on the couch. Yeah, just like happened to toss on microphone in their la

or something like that. And we want to be really intentional here out what we're talking about and the points that we're making their well thought through their their planned these podcasts. We discuss what we're gonna talk about, and we're very intentional about you know, what makes it in and what doesn't into this podcast. But we're also two thirty something dudes with a lot of other things going on in our lives. So we want this podcast to be kind of that blend between getting all the facts

that you need most of the facts at least. Yeah, we're gonna give you some of the facts and then some of that kind of relational and yeah, like we're kind of just hanging out having beers and talking money. I mean essentially that's how I mean, that's how this whole thing started, right because we would sit around and drink beers and talk about money in personal finance and real estate and investing, and there are some numbers you need to know, but then there are other things that

can be left to to other people to explain exactly. Yeah, so that beings said, we appreciate you guys listening, and that'll be it. False. Let's get to beer. Oh man, I'm so excited about these beers. So once you get started cracking these open. Jill brought a bunch of beers back from France on that trip he went on, and I'm super stoked to try some of these craft French beers that are going in the direction of craft beer, like like they're in the States, but obviously they're from

a different country. So yeah, today we're gonna try to beers. And what are these called? Man, Please tell me they're not in French, because you're gonna slaughter the hell out of him. That's the interesting thing about these the French beers and and from some of the styles I was seeing over there, they're very much trying to be like American craft beer. Like the styles that they're going for, the kind of absurdity of some of the some of

the names and some of the combos. They're really trying to go big like some of the American craft beers. It seems like really pushing the boundaries. Well that's because when when you think of European beers, what do you think of? You think of these old school for the most part, right old school pilseners and loggers that have been around for centuries, I mean literally right centuries. Oh yeah, totally.

And when you think of like French styles, I guess you normally assume like a French farmhouse kind of style, like a season something kind of rustic at table beer. And so the two beers I've chosen for tonight out of the beer trade I did, And if you want to see how many beers and what beers I got, check out our Instagram page and we posted a picture

of kind of my beer hall from France. But the two beers tonight are a vanilla milkshake I p a from a brewery called Man that sounds awesome as ammut I believe, and then a probably throw an accident on in there. Yeah, right, and then an Imperial berlinervice made with Heller tau Blanc. Nice, very good jos maybe from a brewery called Ponting. Can you read my daughter's madeline? Next? I feel like you can get all the all the accents just right. I'll put your kids to sleep. Man,

what is an Imperial berlinervice? I'm excited. I don't think I've ever had an Imperial burllinervice. And by the way, the label on this one's really cool. We'll have a picture up at our websites. You can see the labe on that Imperial Berliner. It's just so so cool. Yeah.

And the reason Matt I chose the first one that we're gonna drink, which is the Imperial Berliner with white grapes, I thought this one might have like kind of the most wine resemblance, and coming from France, where do they specialize in wine, I kind of wanted to bring back a beer that had some of those kind of wine notes going on, and this one totally does. Yeah, man, it's totally does. This is really really good. It's probably

the most wine like beer I've ever had. Ye, Like I can, I mean, I can picture the grapes like as I'm drinking. Yeah, yeah, white grapes. Yeah, that's delicious. Uh. And I know that even in the United States right now, that's this is a style that's kind of becoming popular.

Firestone Walker and some other breweries are starting to kind of especially California breweries, starting to brew hybrid beers, so they're this mix between beer and wine, and so I'm definitely interested to try more of those kind of beers. This one seems very much like that in that vein, and it's delicious. I think it's just because of the grapes, Like it's making me think a little bit about like muscadines, like musk muscadine wine, a little bit like sweetness. Yeah.

Like it's just got that sort of thick skin kind of grape piness to it. You know what I'm saying. I think the best word is mustiness. It's got that great mustiness to it. Yeah, I'm with you. This is really good man. Thanks for bringing this back. I like your thoughts, you like with your heads that bringing back something that's kind of like whin ish. Yeah, I figured I had to. I had some great wine while while

I was there. I know the French microbrewers are doing a lot of things that try to resemble American beers, but I wanted to bring something back that felt kind of uniquely French. Yeah. Yeah, and so that this one definitely does that. So now onto the vanilla milkshake. I p a, Yeah, take a little slip your water, cleanse that palett. Yeah, two beers at the same time. Oh man, this smells nice and yeah, a little funky. Yeah, that's

definitely got lacto smoothness combined with a little bit of funk. Yeah, Brett funk too. Man, this is does it say it's specifically Brett. I don't know, Matt, I can't read French. I'm looking for words that look like they might say Brett. Yeah, it's got It's definitely got that funk level going uh and that kind of smooth lactose, a little bit of vanilla in there. Definitely not as hoppy or fruity as some of the milkshake I pa s that I've had

here in the States. Yeah. Man, it's almost got this herbal sort of quality, like less fruit less hot, definitely less hot I mean, it's kind of almost a misnomer. Yeah, oh man, Yeah, some of those beers we've had that are like confused with tea. I'm yeah, I'm with you. It's got a little bit of that t vibe and and it's good. I like, I like some beers with tea in them. Um, that's a style. I think I've only had two or three of uh, But this one it's not build like that, So I'm not sure if

that's like what they're going for on purpose. And this is definitely interesting. I don't think I've ever had a beer that tasted quite like this, but I will, but I will. I will say it's also like it though. Yeah, it's good, but it's also not my favorite. Yeah, I wouldn't be like, oh, you gotta go get a bottle of that, Whereas the the Imperial, the Imperial Berlinervice, that's freaking fantastic. I'd say you definitely need to try that. Well, dude,

thanks so much for bringing these over. You know what, that's one of my favorite things about craft beer is sharing it with friends that appreciate it. There's something really great about having a conversation over beer, enjoying it together. And that's what we do here on the podcast. And man, I love that because there's something great about drinking a good beer by myself at home, but it's better when it's shared. So plus the fact that you got this

when you're traveling too. It's kind of like buying a keepsake, you know, like something, but instead we just get to drink it, you know, my favorite way, better than just sticking on your fridge. Right. Well, one of my favorite things about traveling is when you book far enough in advance, you have months and months and months to look forward to it, and then you get to enjoy the trip itself and then hopefully, you know, you bring back some

sort of souvenir like this. Every time I pop a bottle over the next over the course of the next six months or a year, and like I told you, I still have a bottle left from Amsterdam. Every time I see that, you know, it takes you back. Yeah, it reminds me about the trip and that beer trade,

the people I met, and the fun I had. And that's really fun to get to kind of relive, uh, you know, relive that trip over and over as you see those things or you know, that's why Emily and I try to buy a piece of art from everywhere we go, just a little reminder that token. Yeah, and so every time we see it on our wall, reminded that was that trip. And that's really fun. I love having little reminders of the places that we've been. I'm

with you, man, I love it all right. Matt onto the topic of hand the art of asking for a discount, and I have to confess before we get too far into this, that I've kind of always enjoyed haggling, Like I like flea markets, I like Craigslist, and I know that that's probably a little odd. I don't think most so you've always been that way. Yeah, pretty much, I've kind of always enjoyed ever since you're like a little kid.

You're kind of like into that and bartering or figuring out a way to get something cheaper or just I like talking with people, like pretty much anybody, and so that's just kind of a way that you talk with somebody as opposed to just paying the amount that that's requested. Is working on the price. Having of you all wondered if Joel likes talking to people, right, Yeah, but I will say I think some of the things that we're

gonna share here. You don't have to be naturally inclined. Yeah, you don't have to be extrovert, which is which is what you are, right, So I think that has a lot to do with why obviously you like talking to people, and I think that definitely translates into like haggling and

kind of trying to get a deal. I will say I remember as a kid, my parents, especially my my dad, asking for a discount, like at restaurants, and he's in the military and so he would always ask for a military discount, and I just remember as a kid hating that, like I'm just sitting there. I'm just like, man, just

just pay for it. And I think that's more of uh, like an embarrassed middle school are But you're embarrassed about everything in middle school, so yeah, you're going to be about embarrassed about anything your parents, but that specifically, I just I just remember that standing out, being like, man, let's just pay for the full amount here, Like I'll just pitch in a few bucks, let's just do this and go. But now that I'm an adult, I'm like, nah, that's my money. That being said, I didn't grow up

kind of with that mentality. It wasn't until I had my own money, my own job where yeah, I made that connection that this is my money and I need to make sure that I'm making it stretch and go as far as I wanted to. Well, I think that's probably the first point that we need to make is that whatever you're asking for a discount on, it's your money, and so if you don't ask for the discount, no one else is looking out for you. No one else is going to make sure you get the right deal

or you get the price that you want. And so if you don't do it, no one else will. Whether it's a good or a service that you're asking for a discount on. The mindset behind it is protecting your money so they can work for you the way you wanted to. Ye, Man, I think a big part of that too is just knowing that that's an option. I think most folks just kind of go through life and they just think, oh, you know, you get a bill or you receive a quote or whatever it is, and

you just pay it. And obviously that's probably I think that's what most folks do. But kind of having that knowledge is I think what's missing and just know that that is an option and knowing that you can do that and hopefully too by the end of this podcast you as listeners. That's what we're hoping that you kind of get from this is uh is hearing that like cool, I can sort of ask for a discount. It's not

a huge deal. Yeah. I think most people don't know that it's an option, right, and and there's certainly some parts of life where it's not an option. So for instance, let's say you are renting a place and you are in a lease for a year with a landlord, and you pay a thousand dollars a month for rent. Uh. Yeah, you can't negotiate months a month asking for a discount when you have assigned lease for a certain amount that you're supposed to pay every month. That's not good form,

you know. So just know that there are certain times that it's uncouth, and I think you can use a little bit of common sense and hopefully some of the things we lay out here in order to know kind of when that is and when asking for a discount is just a terrible idea. If Joel thinks it's uncouth, you've better watch out though, exactly because I feel like you ask anybody and everybody for anything. Uh what does that mean? Well, I'm just saying you're not scared, right,

like can I have your firstborn child? Yeah? What? Why would you ask me that? Like? It was not But kind of along those lines, we kind of got started talking about this topic because we were we both came across this article that I was talking about negotiating and asking for discounts specifically to credit cards, and man, some of the stats they had on there were freaking amazing.

They said that the biggest reason consumers don't negotiate or or ask for discounts is because they don't know that they can, but that when people do ask, it's amazing what they're able to get. Specifically, people who asked, we're able to get a late fee waived and just dropped, just straight incredible, right, Yeah, Like, I mean that's a ton of people, but who doesn't how many people don't do it? Right? They see the late fee, they're like a crap, I was late paying the bill. I deserve

to pay the fee. I'm just gonna do it, And so you just end up, you know, sucking it up and paying that extra money out of your bank account to the credit card company when you can make a nice little four minute phone call and ask the representative in a in a kind voice, if you can get the late few waves this month because it was purely accidental and it won't happen again. I assume you've done this right. I've done it before and it works, and I've done it. I've done it a few times too.

Like normally I am just on top of, you know, my my payments and stuff. Sometimes specifically Actually it was before a vacation. It was like a trip when the my payment cycle fell when I was when when I was gone, and I just, you know, you just don't think about that kind of stuff when you're on vacation. And I didn't take care of it ahead of time, and came back to freaking yeah late payment fee and yeah, I just gave him a call and dropped it. Yeah.

Same here. It's it's something like that that falls through the cracks. Like once every few years, something like that happens, and I called in and every time it's happened, you know, two or three times now at this point, they've always reversed it. The other thing too. In that survey, most people that ask for a credit card limit increase, usually get that yeah. And episode ten we dedicated to how

to improve your credit score. Having a higher overall credit card limit available to you helps your credit score, and so, uh, the fact that most people are able to get that if they ask is pretty cool. So that article really helps solidifying my mind that that these aren't just odd things that I do, but these are things that everyone can be doing, and especially with credit card companies, for the most part, you'll be met with the resounding yes. Yeah.

And something else man they covered in the article too, I thought was super interesting was the fact that it seems like from the research that they did was that specifically with people that were in the Midwest, they haggle way more than consumers of my kind of people, Salt of the Earth baby, that folks that are in more urban environments, you know, like in cities and uh, specifically on the East coast. But yeah, I just found that

super interesting. They're just like I guess, folks in the Midwest are just way more about just trying to strike up a deal. You know. Well, it's interesting too, if you've traveled too many places and gone to many flea markets in other countries, you kind of see the different ethnicities, different people groups tend to kind of assume a certain amount of haggling, and other people groups, other other ethnicities,

other countries. It's kind of frowned upon it. It's right, and uh, it's kind of interesting to see that too, that if you just pay the asking price in a place like China, they think you're an idiot because everybody negotiates. Everybody haggles. I mean really, I feel like it's literally almost in every country except for the US. I don't know, maybe like US, the UK and France probably, yeah, most any other country that's not super snooty. I feel like

they're all about haggling, which is more fun. I agree, I think it's fun. Well let's keep moving then, right. And so I think the biggest reason why a lot of people don't like to ask for a discount is because of rejection, right, I mean, I think that's one of my biggest sort of concerns. I do ask for discounts, but I don't think I feel as comfortable as you do.

I think that's kind of universal, right. Nobody likes to ask for something and kind of put yourself out there and then be told no, you know, it's just it sucks. I definitely think that's the main reason that people don't do it. I think it's either shyness or fear of rejection. I think those are the two main reasons people decide not to ask for a discount, or they're unwilling to

look like the person that broke the conventional rules. And so, yeah, that's true, the rule of convention for like straight laced folks that are like, oh, we don't ask for discounts, they'll be offended if I ask for a discount, rice or But let's dispel that rumor right now, most of the time, no one is greatly offended that you Usually businesses as well, right and most of time we're we're talking, we're gonna be talking about businesses specifically. But a business

is not offended if you ask for a discount. And lots of times you're asking the cashier or somebody like that, who might have a few options to give you a discount, or they might not. They might have some power or they might have no power to give you a discount, but ultimately they're not offended that you asked. They don't

really care. They just work for the company. They either look at you and they say, no, I can't do that, or well, let me see what I can do, and so there's a option, or if there happens to be a manager and they're like, let me just wipe my card and sure, no one's asked me in like three years. Yeah,

but no one is. They're not offended at the fact that you right, and you're still going to even if you if you want to make the purchase anyway, you're still gonna be able to make the purchase and walk out of there with not hanging your head in shame because no one cares that you asked nobody. Yeah, exactly, nobody cares, and honestly to like, I think it's important to keep in mind too that even though if they say, you know that is a rejection, just keep in mind

that they're just saying no to your question. They're not saying that like no to you is like a human being, right, Like this isn't a counseling show, but like they're they're saying no to your question. And then you can kind of move on with life realizing that and just being like, all right, this is sort of like this isolated thing. If it doesn't work out, it's no big deal. Yeah, And I mean I think to this extends to other areas of life, right Like, so ultimately the advices go

after it, ask for the discount. And when it comes to asking for a raise at work, asking for more money, asking for a bonus. I know at times I've just had to get over it, suck it up, and do it because because you know what you want, because I know what I want. I know, I feel like I know what I'm worth. And so but studies consistently show that people, especially when man sorry ladies are are not

good at asking for a raise at work. And so hopefully this podcast, this episode gives you kind of that little bit of gusto to go walk into your boss with the knowledge, as we'll get to further on down in the podcast, how to walk in there and and ask for it appropriately, do it the right way. You want to walk in there armed, and so we'll talk about that in a second. But ultimately it extends to

these other areas of life too. And you want to work the muscle of putting yourself out there because that's just a good muscle to exercise and it's gonna benefit you in a lot of arenas in life. Yeah, so like going in and asking for that raise or the promotion like that might be hard to do, Like if you just have never asked somebody for something that where

you knew that that was gonna be a slam dunkey. Yes, right, but honestly, yeah, like working the muscle, I think doing something like this, like going into a store and asking for a discount or seeing if you can get a little free to be thrown in or something that kind of prepares you and it's it's really is like muscle.

It's it's it's conditioning. And the more you get used to doing something like that, the easier that it's going to be when it comes time for something that's like a little higher pressure, like specifically work related, where you're you have to go to a boss or superior and present that request or or and ask them for that.

I think it's gonna be a lot easier for you if you've been haggling at the grocery store, you know, or like at the even at the yard sale or yeah, a couple of lemonade stand even, Well, don't berrate the little eight year old that's trying to be making man. That's like literally two ounces of alemates. You know that's not cool that being said. Like that happened to me. Man. The other like a few months ago, some kids were selling lemonade and I was like, all right, you know whatever,

fifty cents or a dollar. The kid poured me like two ounces, and I was just like, man, look, man, can I get it like a little bit more because I'll pay you know, I'll pay you what you're asking, but I need. I'm thirsty, like I'm literally thirsty. And then you wrote that bad review on Yelp, and that was just that was unfair. Yeah. I called in the Georgia Business License shut that kid down. Did joker wasn't licensed? Man? Yeah.

I think when you get a couple of wins under your belt, it gives you the confidence then to pursue asking for discounts on bigger purchases and then walking into your boss and asking for the race. So I think exercising this muscle, like we said, is such an important thing because getting that affirmative response a few times is this confidence building strategy that not only saves you money, but it also kind of reinforces this good habit that's

going to benefit you in lots of other ways. Cool, let's talk about how to ask for a discount, man, you want to kick it off. Yeah, the first thing that you have to do. There's a lot of other good tips in here, but the first thing you have to do is be prepared with the proper information. If that's asking for a raise, then you want to know what people of similar ilk in your profession and get paid. If that's asking for a discount on a propane tank refill like I just did the other day at Kroger,

you want to know what another store is charging. You want to be armed with that information. You want to have it maybe on your smartphone, at your fingertips. You want to be able to quickly recite a reason why you should be getting that discount. And if you're not prepared with the information, your request for that discount is likely going to fall on deaf ears. Yeah, So specifically to that, a lot of companies price match now right,

like it's store policy. If you knew that and you went in and you had like a competitor's rates, well then boom, you've got your as your leverage. Yeah. And so particularly I think the best price matching policy is at home depot. If their competitor has a better price, they will beat it by right, And so most people just price match exactly the same amount. So let's say you didn't want to drive to Walmart, the targets closer target will price match. That's cool, you got the same price.

You didn't have to drive us far. But home depot, I'm saving an extra ten percent on top of what their closest competitor usually lows is charging. And so yeah, so those kind of discounts are already built into the equation. They know it's listed on their website, so know the store's policy as well. That's another great thing to be

armed with what their policy allows for. So, for instance, I mentioned I went into Kroger to try to get a price match on a propane tank refill, and I knew that from their website they didn't seem to be huge into the price matching thing. They didn't tout it. I wasn't sure they did it at all, but I see that being like a Kroger priority right to be honest with. But you know, I still had the gall and yeah, you gotta gotta go for it, man, you gotta ask to ask for it. Anyway, I had it

pulled up on my phone. Hey, here's what Walmart charges. And you know what, I wasn't successful that time, but I'm often successful, uh in these strategies work out for me. But you have to be armed with the information and you have to be ready to show someone a web page or their own store policy or a coupon or something. Yeah, yep, exactly. Yeah, that's like your AMMO. That's how you like arrive ready. You know, I don't want to present like a battle.

It's not like a fight, but like literally that's what you're presenting to kind of present your case. But I think what you said to man, that's that's that's so clutch. You still went for it, and honestly too. That's again this is like an overarching thing. But the whole reason you need to ask for a disk count, right, like we're talking, we're saying how this is like the art of asking for a discount, is that if you don't ask, the answer is already going to be no. If you

don't ask, you're not going to get the discount. So may as well just try, even if it seems like it's Kroger and they don't really give a damn. And so you're just gonna have to get your propane at full price. So you also want to be human, smile, be kind. Nobody wants to help or do a favor for a jerk, So you can't go in expecting that they're going to give a discount. You can go in hoping, and you can go in armed with the proper information, but you're gonna want to be kind and treat that

person like a human and ask them nicely. You just need to like, yeah, be cool. I came across this quote as well online that I thought it was awesome. Her name is Amanda Palmer, and she was specifically talking about kind of asking people, like making requests of people, not specifically for like a discount, but you know, this kind of fits in the same vein. And she said that through the act of asking people, I connect with them,

and when you connect with them, people want to help you. Yeah, and so it kind of it's it seems counterintuitive, and that's what she was talking about. She's specifically, I think she was addressing like singers and songwriters, you know, artists, But it kind of seems counterintuitive to think that, well, when you ask somebody, oh, their natural inclination is gonna want to be to like recoil, you know, be like

oh no, thank you, you know, sorry. But but what she was saying is that what she finds is that by asking people like you're able to kind of connect with them on a sort of human level. And when you do that, you're known and you're kind of going out there and you're putting putting yourself out there and then people want to help you. That just really resonated with with me when I read that, I just thought

it was awesome. But I think especially if you're honest, earnest and direct, right, and if you if you act like that, if you walk in and you are direct with your need, with your desire, um, don't talk in circles about what you want. People respond to you when you approached them from a standpoint of not trying to rip them off, not trying to get something that you don't deserve, but kindly asking for something that seems reasonable. Yeah.

Well that's the other thing too, is it just that asking for a discount is kind of a rare thing, right, Like if you're just kind of talking your way around a topic with a salesperson, like they're not going to know what you're looking for, you know, And so I think literally just to be like, hey, look, I'll be honest, this is my budget, or look, I'm just trying to

get a deal. I love this product, whatever it happens to be being direct and letting just letting them know what you want, because they might immediately be like, look, no, I'm sorry, I just I literally don't have the power to do that. I can't help you. Cool, Well, you don't need to waste your time, like, no one's got time for that, right right, But if you're able to kind of connect with them on a human level, then

they're gonna help you out. Yeah. One quick example, Matt was when Emily and I were shopping for a couch right before we got married, uh, for my new house and furniture shopping and what was about to be engaged and what was about to be our new house. And we went to Creton Barrel and we were looking at the cleanerance section of furniture that they had there. We found this couch. Ob Yeah, and we found this couch

that we loved. It was really cool, totally in our style, and I think it was regularly a four thousand dollar couch marked down to something like four that's a great price. That's a great discount. Still out of our price range, yes, still a price of couch. And so we had decided we had eight hundred dollars to spend. So I asked the sales associate, is there any chance that you can discount this couch any further? And they said, well, we

could take two more off, but but that's it. And I asked if there was a chance of it getting further reduced in the near future, and she said, every week they take stock of their inventory and decide how much further they're going to market down. So we'll call back Wednesday and ask. So I called back Wednesday and they still weren't ready to market down to the price that I wanted. And then I called back the following

Wednesday and they were. And so if I hadn't asked for the discount, if I had just seen the price tag and walked away, we never would have gotten that couch. And we're so excited to get it. Plus you get the like sort of rush of like getting a great deal too, right, Oh, totally totally yeah, I totally probabe

on that. Uh, but it's such a good lesson for me that asking, even at a kind of fancy place of business like Crate and Barrel, asking them for the discount and then finding that it actually, you know, in the long run, it didn't work right then and there, but it's this kind of lesson in patience and asking and seeing what happens. And the people there were super happy to help. And it took a little bit longer

than I thought. Most times when I asked for a discount, it's a little more instantaneous yes or no. But that was kind of fun that we got the couch we wanted at the price we wanted. And if we hadn't asked we want, seen the price tag and walked away, it wouldn't happened. Yeah, exactly, man, just being direct, right, and so like because of that, they were able to let you know that, like, hey, look, this is how it works. It's almost like they kind of gave you

a peek behind the curtain. They're like, this is how we do it every week on Wednesdays, I guess they kind of reevaluate, uh, take stock of inventory. That's a

good way to do it. And you wouldn't have known that had you not just sort of right up to ask exactly and kind of on the flip side of that though, if I mean if they say no, if you're out there shop and you need to be willing to walk, Yeah, And for me that means too that you have to note the price point of the item that you're asking about the discount for, and how much it might be sold for other places or what that's going for having that knowledge, and so you have to

be willing to walk. And I think sometimes people sometimes they'll call your bluff. Sometimes they'll call your bluff and you need to just high tail it out of there. And this applies to too if you get the deal or if you don't get the deal, right, Like, if you get the deal, then sweet, you need to definitely

be gracious and thankful. But even if you don't get the deal, you don't need a pout and like storm out the store and like knock something over or leave a bad review on Yelp or something you know awful, like we're joking about it, like the Molotov cocktail to place, or get too crazy, gonna burn this mother down. You're all gonna pay for this. You'll regret that you said no to me. Yeah, exactly, know, like you need to be human, you need to be cool and being a

decent human being. That's that's a huge part of that. Oh yeah, I mean I think, you know, going back to what we talked about originally the This American Life episode, the good guy discount, I think kind of that gets at the heart of it. Uh, that that he said, you know, you're a good guy. I'm a good guy? Can I get the good guy discount? Again? A terrible way to ask. I think it's super awkward, but it

should be the thing that is unsaid. It's kind of brilliant though, because it does put the person who's being asked at ease because they think that like, Okay, well this guy is nice. He's not gonna punch punch me or anything, but be nice without saying it. Hey, by the way, I'm a nice guy, can you give me a discount? Coman almost I'm an honest guy, because when you say tell me that you're honest or that you're nice, I'm automatically going to kind of probably assume the opposite.

So just be nice and don't say it out loud. So quickly, Matt, let's talk about online ordering and kind of how to do the discount. I feel like a lot of these things have applied to in person asking for disco which is the hardest thing, which I mean, so it's why we wanted to spend the most time talking about this because that's think for most folks, that's the most difficult thing is looking at another human being in the eye, asking them a question with that's all

the hard work of trying to get a discount in person. Yeah, it's almost a bit easier to do online. Yeah, but there's definitely some techniques and some strategies that work great for online shopping. Yeah. So the first thing to do is really almost not like asking at all. It's kind of just a quick Google search and websites like retell me not or just googling a discount code for a company is kind of equivalent to asking for the discount,

but it's really no human interaction involved. And lots of times you can find t discount on something that you're ordering from a website that you like, and if you skip that search process, you don't get the discount. Yeah, you don't even have to talk to him, but either it's so easy. So that's another way too, is just to hit up a company's Twitter account or like a lot of companies as well that are sort of service oriented or service related, they have like the chat now box,

and man, I really don't use that at hunt. Do you use that a lot? I will say, especially with like my bank and some other things where I had questions cell phone provider for me, Oh yeah, they always have that, like how can I help you today? It's been great. And what's great about that too is this documented. Uh it's up there, and I always like screenshot it or save it and sometimes even have the option where it's like, you know, would you like to say this

this conversation? Yeah, it's it's uh saved in your Twitter direct messages too, and so oh yeah, I think in Twitter. In our Monthly Bills episode, we talked about, you know, asking for a discount from your cable provider or internet provider and how Twitter is one of the best places to do that, and so asking for a discount on Twitter. Direct tweeting at the company or direct messaging a company that you like and follow can be a good tactic to ask for, you know, a ten percent cubant code

off the item that you're considering buying. Or maybe asking for free shipping if that's not something that they offer. Those are kind of easy things to ask for that a company is more than willing to do in many cases in order to make that sale. Yeah, make that sale, keep a customer happy. So what would you do then if there isn't a chat box or if you can't hit him any up online, look for an email address

to the company. And the bummer about that is sometimes it takes longer and you might have to hold off on your purchase. But I did this recently when we were forming our own LLC, right, the poor not poor LLC Boom, we're incorporated, that's right. So trying to sue us, I mean, wait, no, don't But so Mama says, we're botafied. We were doing it the cheap way through legal zoom dot com, which is great for kind of d I Y legal services or getting super cheap help. And so

come on, we're poor, not poor. We're not. We're not gonna like hire a legit attorney. Right Still, I draw the papers together. But so they I had seen in the past that they had coupon codes after I did a little Google search, like they have some they're just inactive at the time, so I couldn't find one that was current, and so I decided to shoot an email to legal Zoom's email address. Took a couple of days for them to get back to me, but they said, hey,

thanks for writing in. Here's a cupon code for off nice and so that's saved saved us some money, and it was worth wait in two days because it wasn't like we need needed to do it right then and there. Um, And so I would say, yeah, email is great. It's a little bit slower, but sometimes that can be worthwhile too. And if I hadn't asked, we would have paid full price. Thanks for saving me twelve fifty buddy, you got it, man, That's what I'm here for. So hopefully those were some

like helpful actionable items. Right, In general, asking for a discount kind of takes more of like a salesman sort of mentality, right, Um, I think if you're sort of in that industry, asking for a discount might come a little bit easier. Um, and I dode. I think this is also why this is harder for a lot of folks who are kind of artists or if they own their own business, because that's just not how their brain works,

and because of that, it's harder. I think they a lot of artists and people that are producing like a product or something that they're putting out there just think, well, I'm just gonna focus on that and then that like people will come, it'll be found. But that's not how it works when it comes to asking for a discount,

like you have to ask. Yeah, that's true if it's natural for you to ask for a discount, if you're not like in a sales job or in that sort of environment and you feel like you are more like that artist type where it's a little awkward and it's not your natural inclination. Remember, it is a muscle that you need to exercise and start small, ask for something little, and each time that you get a yes, it builds that confidence just a little bit. So first ask via

email or something like that or via twitter. Uh. Starts small, ask for something little, and every time that you get a yes, boom, it's that move in the right direction and that muscle gets a little bit stronger and you feel like you can ask for something a little bit bigger, or maybe do it in person next time at a story you're at yeah, And kind of along those lines as well is the ability and working the muscle to say no. And so I guess I'll start kind of

thinking down this path a little bit. So you know, I'm a small business owner, I'm a creative, and sometimes I get asked for discounts, and I think, man, sometimes creatives get sort of been out of shape when they are asked that because they think, oh, man, like they don't respect my work, like they don't value what I do, and it kind of ruins their whole attitude for the

day or for that customer specifically. Right when I think I've been in it long enough now that I realized that it's fine to ask for a discount, Like sure, anybody can ask me a discount, I might say no. And so I think that's sort of on the flip side of it, right, build that muscle and get stronger,

get more used to asking for a discount. But if you're on the flip side of that, if you're someone that provides a service or someone that sells a product, you also need to sort of build the muscle and kind of have the ability to lay boundaries and say no when you know that it's not either appropriate, or it's not best for the business or even for personal reasons, like if they came in demanding it or something and they seem entitled, and if it's not something you want

to compromise on, then I think that's something that is very worthwhile to sort of build up and get used to doing, because otherwise you're just gonna get walked all over. And as a creative and as like an entrepreneur, they're like, there's nothing that sort of dampens that fire to want to do that than feeling like everyone's just trying to

like screw you over. So question for you, have you given discounts to clients when they ask and if so, did some of these kind of things that we discussed come into play the way somebody asked, and their directness, their humanity, and their preparation with rates from other photographers, Did any of those things kind of come into play for you to grant that discount. Yes, people do ask for discounts, not like all the time, but it's not

an uncommon thing for folks to ask for a discount. So, you know, as a wedding photographer, sometimes folks will come to me and say, Hey, I'm getting married, on a Friday or or a Sunday, do you offer discounts for that? And sometimes they are prepared. That's one of the points we talked about earlier. They never say specifically who. It's kind of like general and vague, which is probably smart

at least in your line of work. When you're going into Target, you want to say that Walmart's going yeah. But in your line of work, it makes sense that they say, you know, I've got another similar It's a little more relational, and I guess it's a little less lazy to say, hey, like we've been talk to talk about some folks and they don't want to like just

put everybody up against each other. But but yeah, they've come to me and said, hey, there's another photographer and they're willing to include a second photographer for the same rate. Or they offered discounts for on Saturday weddings, things like that, And and sometimes I do you know, it just depends on sort of my book of business. If I'm crazy busy, well sorry, you know, I just can't. I can't offer

a discount. I'm already too busy as it is. But if it's pretty far in advance and it says, say, it's a month where I don't have anything on the books yet, that's once something I'll completely consider and I definitely never think less of them, uh, and it does not affect how I view them as people or how I treat them as clients. One of the ways that I was surprised that we were now we're able to get a discount was with delivering a baby. Um so back when we had our yeah, I did it for

twenty bucks. It was quite the deal. Back when we had Vye, our oldest daughter, we didn't have maternity included. But with Evy, we're paying out of pocket because we were doing self pay and we had heard that you could talk to the hospital and get a reduced rate. We went to the billing department there at the hospital ahead of time, before everything went down right, they agreed to a specific rate that they offer for patients that

are looking to self pay. And we not only did that with the hospital, we did that with my wife's obie and all the other doctors and bills that you get in the mail after the fact, which heads up you get a ton of bills because obviously you've got the hospital and you've got your ob your doctor that delivers the baby. But there's just all these other little things too, like the hearing test and the epidural and you know, if you if you go that route, and

there's just so many little things. And not a single one of those bills did we pay full price because I called them up, had a decent human conversation with them or in the case with the obie in the hospital. It's just something we talked about ahead of time and had a great reduced, agreed upon rate that we were able to set up. Yeah, and sometimes yet you can ask for the discount after the fact, but definitely in this case, better to ask beforehand. You're going to get

a better rate negotiating that beforehand than afterwards. And we just wanted the peace of mind knowing that right going going into ahead of time. So and one thing that might affect a lot more people than that scenario to Amazon Prime will give you a discount. So Amazon Prime has guaranteed two day delivery on packages. We're still talking about delivery, but that's a good point. That's a good point. Uh, But let's say that package gets delivered in three to

four days instead of two days. You can call Amazon primes number, and this is kind of a documented thing at this point, and ask for a free month and they'll say, well, why should we do that, Well, because the package wasn't delivered in two days, and that's kind of your deal, right Amazon Prime supposed to be here in two days, and they will give you an extra month of Amazon Prime service for free, So they'll add

that on. So every time a package is delayed a little bit longer than expected, you can get that extra free month of Amazon Prime. I'm sure you can probably wear out your welcome over time and they will stop doing it. But that's kind of a cool thing just to know that that's a atually kind of part of their culture, part of their policy at this point, and asking for that discount doesn't hurt, but you just need to know that it's available and that you should be

asking for it. And hopefully to a certain extent, this episode gives you the permission to ask. I think sometimes we think that we can't or we're gonna hurt somebody's feelings or that's a little uncouth, But that permission to ask, that's what this is right here, so exactly, and we would love to hear from you in our Facebook group or on the comments on the show notes of this post at Poor not Poor dot com. We would love

to hear about the best discounts you've got. Yeah, I'd love to see that just by asking, so so toss those up we and we will hopefully share those on the future episode. That would be a lot of fun. So, yeah, there's a really good one. I'll oh, man, I would love to share that, so, Matt. Back to the beer. We had two French beers brought back from my trip to France. A vanilla milkshake I p a. I'm not even gonna try to pronounce the brewery's name in an

imperial for litteralise with hell tow blanc grapes. Yeah, both of these were great. You didn't like the vanilla milkshake I p as much, I will say, man, as it kind of warmed up the more I had it. It had like this sort of jasmine honeysuckle, sort of floral notes to it, kind of goes along with what you're saying, like the tea aspect of it, and I kind of kind of grew on me. It just wasn't quite my vibe. I usually like beers like that, but then this one

had kind of some interesting flavor combos. It wasn't bad, but it's just not a beer that I would be I would want to go back to the Gallia Brewery that made the Imperial Berlin device that was absolutely delicious and the beer was not even outdone by this amazing artwork. That beer was so good as a sweet bottle. So it's so crazy about that is it's considered an Imperial Berlin of ice, which isn't something I've literally I've literally never had that before. I want to see more berries

making Imperial Brillin of vices because this was fantastic. It was like a regular Brillin Brillin avice, but with just more flavor, you know. It was just more aggressive and the grapes came through like gangbusters. It felt like I was biting into the grapes in a lot of ways. That nice musty, winey kind of quality, uh in this beer was really fantastic. That this was like an impeccably made beer. And yeah, I wish I had more of

these because that was really really good. Awesome Joel, Let's go ahead and do a quick recap and then we'll end this episode. Yeah, man, So the art of asking for a discount. Most people don't even think to do it, and usually that's because they're afraid of getting rejected. No one likes being turned down for something. But just know they're saying no to the question, not to you. Yeah, and then how to ask for a discount. I think

the most important thing is to be prepared. Right. If you don't know what it is that you're looking for, what it is that you're gonna ask for, and if you don't have sort of the leverage, specifically, if you don't know what a competitor is offering, um, you're not gonna be able to get quite the deal and you're not gonna be able to present the information and make a case. You want to be prepared. You want to

know what's out there. You want to have that information ready to go when you are about to ask for that discount. That's right, And you want to be human. Smile look people in the eyes also very important, right and uh, and I think people respond when you ask kindly and you're not expecting to get something for free. People don't want to do a favor for a jerk, So be kind, yeah, man, being nice, like you're able to make that human connection and like that that's just

so important. And the other thing too, when you're asking for discounts too, is it just builds up that muscle. Like we talked about earlier. It gets you used to saying, it gets you used to asking, and it also gets you used to being told no, getting used to that rejection.

And over time that's something that you'll get better at doing and hopefully you'll find that kind of translates into other aspects, other areas of your of your life as well, like asking for a raise or really just kind of going after something you want to do and hopefully it will work out for you. But ultimately the answer is always going to be no if you never ask, Yeah, Matt.

Essentially it's like cross fit for your ask for a discount muscle, right, And so I've never done cross it, but I'm assuming that it's good and then you get strong So um, yeah, that's what you people do, get stronger. I know that that's to here. Thanks for listening. Our home on the web is how to money dot com.

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craft beer. That's this one right here. Yeah, there's no other ones out there, right like, by default, we are the number one craft beer personal finance podcasts. That's how we roll. Buddy, you had to dominate some sphere and this was it. Cheers, Cheers man, best friends out, Best Friends Out,