I’m not a huge fan of fairs. Lots of overpriced and unhealthy food, lots
of oversold and unhealthy people, and not much peace and quiet. But I am a fan of people watching!
Last fall I went to the Texas State Fair with my homie Mars. We did a lot of walking around and exploring. Eventually we got tired and wanted to rest for bit. Fortunately there was a tent set up by a well-known mattress chain, with plenty of very comfortable looking furniture to test drive.
I sat in a modern-styled reclining chair with a footstool, and man it was comfy! It could’ve been that I’d been on my feet for the last 4 hours, but still. I melted into it.
Mars and I were talking about how much we thought that the chair would cost, and out of curiosity I asked the sales rep dude. He said “I think 2 or 3 thousand, lemme check,” then talked to another dude who knew, and said, “They’re $3,200”
$3,200 for a chair. What.
I wish that was the worst part of the story. Despite me emphasizing that I had asked simply out of curiosity and had no interest whatsoever in taking one home with me, the sales guy started hounding me pretty hard to buy one. He brought over his clipboard and put it right in front of my face.
Out of semi-politeness, I told him I didn’t have that kind of money and I’m a broke college kid. Partially true, but not fully because I could pay cash for a few of those silly chairs if I wanted to. But “I can’t afford it” is a lot more polite than “Get outta my face!” right?
Now, I know it’s his job, and everybody has to pay the bills. But after I told him that I was not able to afford a $3,000 chair, he tried to convince me to finance it. So basically telling me, “Hey poor college student, I know that you don’t have money now, so how about you pay it off little by little over a long period of time, paying more than you would have paid up front, and making sure you don’t have money for the next few years!”
His actual words were “It’s $20 a week, that’s less than your cell phone bill!”
Jokes on you bro, my phone bill is $19.51 a month $12.18 a month (as of April 2017).
Here’s what we learned:
1. Someone out there is spending 3 grand on a comfy chair. Otherwise they wouldn’t be selling them. Don’t be that person.
2. If somebody tries to sell you something, and they want you to finance it, pay for it over a period of time, “take advantage of a layaway option”, please say no and stop talking to them. If you’re financing something, you will pay a lot more for it. Looking back, I should’ve asked them what the interest rate on that financing was, so I could calculate how much more it would cost “with special financing”. But I just wanted to get out of there afer he started badgering me.
3. One of the most powerful words in the English language is “no”. If you are not comfortable telling people no, get comfortable with it.
There will be people out there who are trained to make you part with your money, and they do a great job of masking the fact that it’s for their gain, not yours.
(Pictured: My cat using a significantly less expensive chair. Mora, MN December 2016)