Asshole Shoppers who Haggle Aggressively with Individual Sellers & Small Businesses

Real talk: there’s a special place in hell for people who finds satisfaction in getting the Lowest Possible Price (TM) via haggling with individual sellers & small businesses. These persistent assholes revels in getting the trader to hang their head in shame and disgrace, forced to accept an extremely low profit margin in order to make a desperate, survival sale.

This happens a lot to individual sellers & small businesses, and right here, right now, I’m going to address it. Rule of thumb: DO NOT HAGGLE WITH INDIVIDUAL SELLERS & SMALL BUSINESSES, WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING. PAY THE BLOODY FULL PRICE.

These people are Mudah sellers who need to sell their belongings to make it through the month. They are the mobile  booth renters at shopping malls who can only afford to employ bored-looking attendants. They are the vendors who rely on seasonal bazaars. They are the traders who keep their stock in the back of their car (and had to pack and leave at a moment’s notice when DBKL comes to check permit). They are the mothers and fathers who sacrificed their careers to be a full-time housewife/husband for the sake of kids but ended up having to start business from home in order to keep up with household expenses. These are the aunties/uncles who peddle their wares table to table, while you were eating at the restaurant.

Obviously the list above is non-exhaustive. But these are people who NEED the profit margin to be financially better.

Asshole shoppers typically say something like this (Malay-centric because taken from own experience).

“Alaaa kasi la discount lebih sikit, kalau tak saya beli dari orang lain la”

“Harga online masa tu lagi murah. Kalau you match I beli sekarang”sh

“Kurang lagi RM10 je, boleh la”

*pretends to leave to pressure seller to lower price*

Please don’t be that person.

I’m ending this post with a brilliant video from India about this horrible behaviour. Please don’t do it. Buy less if you can’t afford to buy a lot, but buy in full price. Don’t demean their time and effort to earn money.