It’s a dizzying marketplace
Published 3:29 pm Thursday, December 29, 2011
Although Time magazine named the “protester” as its person of the year, we would like to honor the beleaguered “consumer,” seeing as how he/she was given the responsibility of saving the economy. (Not that the two are mutually exclusive. Weren’t sales of tents, spray paint and other essentials up during the “Occupy” demonstrations?)
While wages remain stagnant for so many, and costs continue to rise — from insurance deductibles to sewer bills — it’s more imperative than ever to be a “savvy” consumer, to save the few precious discretionary dollars one has.
Some people are natural-born comparison shoppers. Others seem genetically destined to always over-pay, or get ripped off. (However, the succinct “There’s a sucker born every minute” seems a bit harsh. You don’t have to be dumb enough to fall for an online Nigerian whatever scam to be confused when it comes to finding the most reasonable vehicle insurance.)
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday about people who negotiate with cable companies after the promotional deals that they signed up for expire. “Bundling” of services particularly leads to this type of sticker shock once the promo price evaporates. It requires a fair amount of time on the phone and a good deal of patience, but a lower fee can usually be had by negotiating with your cable/phone/Internet company.
Savvy consumers know this model applies to just about everything: Medical bills, medical procedures, airline tickets, hotel accommodations, credit card interest rates, mortgages, gym memberships, new vehicles, used vehicles, car insurance, computers, etc. And that’s fine for the consumer who has the time, interest and skills to negotiate with every service provider in their lives. But if you’re the kind of person who reads “Finance for Dummies,” or needs to, it’s exhausting to imagine that much negotiating to simply get a fair price for services.
These days people feel ripped off if they pay “full price” for anything. But given all the sales, daily deals and discounts, it seems reasonable to assume that many things are well over-priced in the first place, so the needed profit is still made despite much ballyhooed “rock bottom” price tags.
Savvy consumers have created helpful smartphone apps that allow people to comparison shop — they can tell you where the cheapest gas or groceries nearest to you can be found. And that’s great. But sometimes lower prices on food just means it’s not the freshest. At what distance does traveling to get the cheapest gas no longer make sense?
Savvy consumers might just want to offer their services to mentor unsavvy consumers — the price to be negotiated, naturally.
