Bargaining and the nature of war

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: consumers the central role they have enjoyed traditionally.

Bargain is participative and interactive. It allows the scope for action and drama. A commercial transaction is taken to the level of a stage performance. Emotions are unlocked and the codes of win and defeat are played in high theatrical pitch. The whole game starts with a mock transfer of ownership: “Yeh aap ki shop samajh lo.” The consumer apparently is given a free hand to decide price: “Jo marzi de do.”

And then the dramatic exchanges start. The consumer’s onslaught on price is countered by the seller’s cries for mercy. The gestures of submission and disarming laughters are interspersed with dialogues like “If you pay me that price I will surely die. Please keep my pot boiling.” There are continuous references to the customer as malik/madamji, saab/ memsaab. The seller downplays himself as a small trader, chhota aadmi, garib vyapari till the game of stooping to conquer comes to a happy end for both.

The seller has managed to get his desired price and also an impressed customer who will, in all probability, come back for the second time. The buyer goes back happy relishing every moment of his financial victory. The saga will be a part of his engrossing narrative in the next social gathering.

Most of the local big stores who have already adopted the straight jacket of fixed price have also managed to keep a diluted version of this bargain drama through their teams of salesmen who whisper to the consumer to approach the owner. The owner obliges. “Just to honour your words.” Or, “You being the first customer...” Or some similar immunity clauses are put before exceptions are allowed. A nation that has been brought up on a generous diet of upri and bargain, declared discount are bound to appear bland to the consumer.

As malls and stores vie with each other, and retailers try to get a bigger pie of consumer pocket, it may be a good idea to look into the old bargain strategy as a new success formula. Give the bargain blood hounds the taste of blood. If not in its undiluted version, at least a ritualistic version can do wonders. Why can’t a discount be packaged in the cloak of bargain?