Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

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kingjimmy
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Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

[Thread bumped from 2013 -- admin LadyGeek]

Hello,

My soon to be bride and I (getting married in 24 days!) received an early wedding gift from my parents: They gave us money to buy a new sofa. After driving around to quite a few stores, we've finally determined what sofa & rocking chair we want, and it happens to be at Lay-z-boy. We met with a sales rep Sunday and told them we'll be back tonight. Before leaving they set us up for some some "private showing" appointment, where they say a limited number of customers for this "private showing" they are having on this Thursday only, where they will have "special deals" not available to the general public. (I feel like they are probably setting me up, but oh well).

This is my first time actually buying furniture. Any haggling suggestions? Can you haggle much on furniture?
Last edited by kingjimmy on Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Blues
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by Blues »

When I lived in FL I ordered furniture from a wholesaler in the Hickory - High Point - Lenoir area.

When I moved to NC, I had good results with Tyson's Furniture in Black Mountain. (Asheville area.) I purchased a La-Z-Boy recliner there amongst many other items.

You can always discreetly discuss pricing and available discounts with furniture showrooms and sales reps.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by KisKis »

Absolutely you can haggle on furniture. I hear it can be marked up from 80-300%. Good to hear that you've shopped around, and hopefully you have a good idea of the price range for the product you are looking for. The "well, I really like this one, but it's priced a little high for me so I might look at some other stores" even when I've already made up my mind, has worked well for me in the past. Use your body language, start backing up or turning around, etc. so the sales person has to come after you with better offers. Once they come in with what you think is their lowest offer or price that you are happy with, try saying that you can purchase immediately if they can make a slightly lower price work (state the actual price) for one last reduction.

Congratulations on the upcoming wedding, and if you plan on kids, keep that in mind when considering materials. I just had a conversation yesterday with a coworker about sofa regrets because of our toddlers.
Last edited by KisKis on Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

Thanks. Yeah. She has a couple dogs, so we were definitely very interested in the fabrics before purchasing. We want it to last us 10-15 years.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by krannerd »

One tactic that I like is when you're done negotiating the price of the furniture...ask about 0% interest financing. If they offer it, its likely that they are part of a merchant program that gives the store the cash immediately minus a few % in interest.

If they agree to 0% financing, I'll offer to give them the cash up front minus the bank charges. It saves them the paper work, gets them the cash immediately and saves me 3-7%. I then whip out the AMEX to complete the transaction and collect 1.25% additional cash back (this is usually met with groans from the sales manager).

Hope this helps...congrats on the upcoming marriage!
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

We'll be paying with a check today. As it is nobody in their right mind would give me 0% financing because I have poor credit. My credit of late is great, but I'm still paying the piper for past mistakes.

Any general recommendations on how much I might be able to get off percentage wise? Do most people negotiate on furniture prices... even if it is already marked off?
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by bigred77 »

I just recently furnished a house and was able to get 20% off my entire order.

I would go look at exactly the stuff you want agin with the salesman, tell him the pieces you want, and tell him you're prepared to make the purchase on the spot, cash, if you get 20% off.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by krannerd »

kingjimmy wrote:We'll be paying with a check today. As it is nobody in their right mind would give me 0% financing because I have poor credit. My credit of late is great, but I'm still paying the piper for past mistakes.

Any general recommendations on how much I might be able to get off percentage wise? Do most people negotiate on furniture prices... even if it is already marked off?
I agree with the poster below about offering 20% off for cash!

Regarding your current credit situation...you never actually get to the credit check part of the discussion...just ask if they're offering the financing at 0% (which they likely are). If they offer it, they've basically just agreed to a ~5% discount...the only difference is who gets that 5%....you or their bank.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by fizxman »

Whatever you do, don't get the scotch guard protection at the store! That stuff is marked up to the moon; you'd think it was liquid gold. You can go to Wal-Mart and get a shopping cart full of scotch guard for the price you'd pay them to put it on and it's all pretty much the same stuff. This isn't necessarily haggling, but it's a way to save money.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

Good advice!
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by Abe »

Everything is Negotiable :happy
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

Should I pay all the money up front, or do I pay half in person and half upon delivery?
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by derosa »

If you are not willing to walk away - that is not buy it - you are not negotiating. You are just having a conversation. You have to be willing to walk away and convince them of that to really negotiate. Not saying that conversation is bad - but don't confuse that with negotiating.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by littlebird »

kingjimmy wrote:Should I pay all the money up front, or do I pay half in person and half upon delivery?
My not very pleasant and unique experience with La z boy was that they demand payment in full BEFORE delivery. Unfortunately, their recliner was the only one I was comfortable in. I did pay by credit card and would have disputed the charge had anything gone wrong, but I was unhappy with their policy and I would never buy that way again.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by fareastwarriors »

littlebird wrote:
kingjimmy wrote:Should I pay all the money up front, or do I pay half in person and half upon delivery?
My not very pleasant and unique experience with La z boy was that they demand payment in full BEFORE delivery. Unfortunately, their recliner was the only one I was comfortable in. I did pay by credit card and would have disputed the charge had anything gone wrong, but I was unhappy with their policy and I would never buy that way again.

I thought that was usually the case...
You pay at the store and it gets delivered. The drivers/movers don't collect money.
I purchased couple of beds recently. We paid at the store. Didn't think twice about it.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by Fallible »

Here's a helpful article from Consumer Reports on haggling. Generally, you can haggle over anything anywhere, but do your homework and be ready to walk away.

http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pr ... entry.html
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (haggling).

See this thread: Do You Haggle? If so: when, for what, how?
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by pennstater2005 »

Haggle away. I've had good luck on furniture. Be ready to walk.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by InvestorNewb »

Be careful who you haggle with and be ready to walk out of the store. I tried negotiating a price down with one lady at Lay-z-Boy and she was really pushy. I regret not walking out at that very moment. The good news is that I bought the same couch at another one of their stores from a very nice gentleman, and at a discount. She didn't get a dime from me.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by mschmitt »

fizxman wrote:Whatever you do, don't get the scotch guard protection at the store! That stuff is marked up to the moon; you'd think it was liquid gold. You can go to Wal-Mart and get a shopping cart full of scotch guard for the price you'd pay them to put it on and it's all pretty much the same stuff. This isn't necessarily haggling, but it's a way to save money.
I worked at a large furniture store warehouse years ago and all the furniture had Scotchgard applied at the factory. Regardless of the furniture brand name, it was delivered to us and then to the customer in original factory packaging. We never applied any stain protection. What you bought with the Scotchgard "protection plan" was a warranty that covered replacement if the fabric was stained. I'm guessing this is probably the same way things are done for most, if not all, major furniture brands nowadays.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

We got 10% off our sofa. I tried pushing for more and got another $50 knocked off. There was a recliner I was interested in, but it put me $400 over what I was willing to spend for everything. I tried to get it down and took the recliner off the order to see if she would budge anymore. The sales lady took it off without flinching and didn't try to even reduce the price on it or try to get me to buy it. She didn't even suggest I finance it. She was just like "ok."



I'm happy with what I got. So :-)
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

Note: The recliner I was initially interested in I decided I wasn't upon second review. I looked into a second recliner which was several hundred more. That set me over my budget. We also refused the Scotch guard and lifetime warranty. They bundled them together.

Also, they only required 25% down. But I chose to pay it all right now.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by KisKis »

Thanks for the followup. Enjoy the sofa! (Oh, and if used furniture doesn't bother you, then try keeping an eye on Craigslist or moving sales for the recliner that you liked. Helps to focus on the high end neighborhoods. Sometimes you can pick up amazing stuff that has hardly been used.)
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by Oilburner »

Supposidley you can, but a couple of years ago I went into our local Lazy Boy store, selected a recliner, and asked if they could knock a little off the price and I was told flat out "No" so my wife and I headed for the door and the sales person did not even bat an eye or give any indication they were interested in keeping us as a customer.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by fizxman »

mschmitt wrote:
fizxman wrote:Whatever you do, don't get the scotch guard protection at the store! That stuff is marked up to the moon; you'd think it was liquid gold. You can go to Wal-Mart and get a shopping cart full of scotch guard for the price you'd pay them to put it on and it's all pretty much the same stuff. This isn't necessarily haggling, but it's a way to save money.
I worked at a large furniture store warehouse years ago and all the furniture had Scotchgard applied at the factory. Regardless of the furniture brand name, it was delivered to us and then to the customer in original factory packaging. We never applied any stain protection. What you bought with the Scotchgard "protection plan" was a warranty that covered replacement if the fabric was stained. I'm guessing this is probably the same way things are done for most, if not all, major furniture brands nowadays.
I worked for a small family owned furniture store 15 years ago and they applied the fabric protection at the store (I remember the floor of the room being very slippery, it was fun to slide on). I guess it all depends but when I bought a sofa last year I was asked if I wanted the fabric protection applied to the sofa and I knew not to get it.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by kingjimmy »

I wonder how many people really get the protective services and warranty plans at stores. I wonder how many stores actually have to back up the warranty on their furniture and fix things? I was theorizing last night with my fiance that the warranties the stores provide are probably backed by some insurance company they pay a couple dimes to. The entire warranty is probably almost straight profit for them, and carries very little risk.

Our sales lady did try really hard to get us to have the warranty/protection service. It cost about $300. She initially put it on our order without asking, then when I looked at it I asked about it and had it removed. Then she lectured me on the benefits of it and after my persistance, finally took it off the invoice. Then after the sale was completed she reminded me that if I changed my mind I could always add it on prior to the sofa being manufactured within the next 2 weeks. I was intrigued that she could care less if she sold me the recliner, but she REALLY wanted me to get the warranty/protection service. There must be a lot more money in it for her and the store if they sell that service.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by tyrion »

Another data point-

My wife and I bought a sectional couch last weekend. We have a fairly small house with a long and narrow living room, so we needed a fairly unique (small individual units) sectional. My wife has been looking on and off for a few years and finally found one on sale at a major dept store. A few observations after going through the process and reading this thread:

The sales people were circling. My wife had been in earlier and met a sleazy guy and a quiet guy. Quiet guy was assigned to her after sleazy guy realized she wasn't interested in a leather couch. Maybe there was some other system at play. At any rate, our quiet guy was no pressure, easy to work with, not trying hard to sell anything but willing to answer questions.

The sale price was about 20% off normal price. The sale was ending and being replaced by a 10% off sale starting the following day. Our guy was willing to throw in both discounts (so 10% off the 20% off 'sale' price). We didn't try to negotiate further. My intuition tells me there wasn't much more in the way of savings to be found, but who knows. Happy wife, happy life.

We did purchase the fabric protection for $200 (10% of purchase price). Good for six years, they will come out and remove accidental stains (wine, pet accidents, crayons, etc) and replace if they are unable to clean. We were going to skip it like we normally do but were told we could get a full refund if we cancelled before 6 years and didn't use the service. Only catch was the refund was in the form of a store gift card. Reading the fine print confirmed this. Our sales guy wasn't pushing it at all, although maybe he was just really good at reading us. Anyway, we do have kids and a cat so we spent the extra $.

The furniture is american made. That counts for something in my book.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by PugetSoundguy »

Many years ago, when I was in high school and for a summer in college, I worked as a salesperson at a regional discount appliance chain. The profit margins on most of the products were extremely low; advertised specials truly were often sold below cost. The salespeople were judged, and in large part compensated, on sales of extended service agreements. Selling the underlying product was easy; the real challenge was selling the extended "warranty," although we weren't supposed to call it that for legal reasons. In general I think the agreements were not a great deal for customers but some customers did like the peace of mind they provided. And the company as an institution was very honest in honoring them in my experience. If a customer had a problem, they were taken care of fairly. If the customer had an extended "warranty," the company absolutely honored it in letter and spirt with no nonsense. There was a very good in house service department.

Salespeople had pretty wide discretion in granting reasonable discounts on underlying products, so long as it was a product that was marked up quite a bit to begin with. Compensation worked as follows: Salespeople got a fixed 2% commission plus a "spiff" that varied from product to product. For example, an-off brand TV that sold for $300 might have a $10 "spiff." So a salesperson would get $6 plus $10 for a total commission of $16 on a full price sale. On the other hand, a comparable Sony TV might sell for $400 but have no spiff. The total commission on that would be only $8. So the less scrupulous sales people would say, "Sure, I could sell you the Sony for $400, but really Brand NoName is just as good and I would hate to have you spend $100 extra that you don't need to." Some customers would think, "Wow, what an honest salesperson," and they would then have an extra $100 that they could spend on the extended warranty (which they might well need because some the Brand NoName stuff was pretty bad). I didn't play that game because it felt extemely sleazy; on the other hand, it was easy for me to be more above board because I was just making extra cash for college. I wasn't trying to feed a family. I made tons of money anyway being a truly honest salesperson.

Anyway, among the many lessons I learned from that job were the following: Salespeople are like everyone else, there are many really nice ones and a few jerks. But they almost all respond to the incentive system in place. I learned to never, ever, ever, rely on "information" from a salesperson. In so doing, you are speaking to the most biased person imaginable if you are looking for neutral information. You might get some good "information" on occasion, but you have no way of knowing in advance when that would be. Also, with some exceptions, most consumer salespeople are not looking to establish long-term relationships that might counterbalance some of their other darker incentives. They just want to make the sale today and don't care about dealing with you tomorrow. Also, best deals are usually on good brand names with no extras.

By the way, I worked in the pre-computerized era. The commission information was right on the price tax in the "stocking code" at the bottom. A typical code, let's say for a NoName TV priced at $300, would be as follows: 2X5810SP5004SP. Translation: 2X = 2% commission. 58 = our store code, just a number thrown in to make the string of numbers look more confusing. 10SP = $10 spiff if sold at full price (in this case $300). 500 = Divide this number by two to get a discounted price, so in this case it would be $250. 4SP = If you sold at $250, you would still get the 2 percent, but the spiff would be reduced to $4. This also meant that there was additional wiggle room to go a bit lower, but then there would be no spiff. For a product with no spiff at all (usually the big name brands), there was very little markup, which of course is why there was no spiff. Salespeople knew not to permit much haggling on those products.

In places where salespeople have discretion, I wonder the various ways this information is communicated to salespeople today?
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by eharri3 »

They probably don't have much room to deal if you're only buying one or two items. The bigger discounts come when you buy multiple pieces at the same time. The last couple times we have gone furniture shopping it was for a bunch of things at the same time. They list everything we pick, then like in a car dealership they go ask the manager what the marked down price for the package will be. Our disciounts were usually 20-25% but we spent at least a few thousand each time out.

And alot of times they can be flexible on the finance deals too. They won't tell you this but they have leeway. When we bought our sitting room stuff they told us they can only do 6 months zero%. When they rang us up the manager forgot what he already authorized. When the clerk double checked with him he said he authorized 12, and they went ahead and rung it up that way.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by SpuddyBud »

So I went to my local Lay-Z-Boy store three times to look at sofa recliners and a recliner chair. I also looked at all the other furniture stores in town and have determined that I want the Lay-Z-Boy brand. I found a sofa recliner and a recliner chair that I like. The MSRP on the sofa is $1599 and on sale for $1179. The MSRP on the recliner chair is $1229 and on sale for $899. I want to purchase 2 sofa recliners and 1 recliner chair. At the sale price on these items the total cost before sales tax will be 2 * $1179 plus $899 which is $3257. After reading many of the posts about "Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-Z-Boy)" what kind of discount should I expect since the items are already "on sale". Let me know your thoughts!!!

I love negotiating price on vehicles but have never done this with furniture.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by LadyGeek »

Welcome! FYI - You are bumping a 2013 thread.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by SpuddyBud »

What does that mean "Bumping a 2013 thread"? Do I need to post to something else?

I need help getting started.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by LadyGeek »

You're fine. I was just making it clear to the other members. Many times, someone will respond to a very old post - the reply is no longer relevant.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by stoptothink »

I don't know about haggling for discounts, but my FIL is actually a salesman at Lay-Z-Boy. The margins must be extremely high because his discount is >50% off MSRP on most items. Also, they get first dibs on products they are trying to move out. He actually has a few pieces of furniture sitting in his garage that he bought just because (maybe a family member will use them some day or he'll put them on Craigslist?) that he bought for literally pennies on the dollar.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by adamthesmythe »

Abe wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:20 pm Everything is Negotiable :happy
Try it with the grim reaper when he comes for you.

But yes, I got a discount on a sofa purchase.
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by MandyT »

[pedantic]

It's La-Z-Boy.

[/pedantic]
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Re: Haggling at Furniture Store (Lay-z-Boy)

Post by LadyGeek »

SpuddyBud has reposted the question here: Haggling Over Price At Lay-Z-Boy Furniture In 2020

(Thread locked to redirect the responses.)
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