Let’s Make a Deal

The idea of bargaining is one I would generally say is not a good idea in relationships.  I always encourage people to give 100% in any relationship.  No tit for tat, no if you do this I’ll do that.  That said, however, the art of bargaining for goods and services seems to have been lost through the years.

 

My mom is the consummate bargainer.  I remember once when I was young there was this set of tea dishes she wanted.  They were the kind where you put your little tea dainties on one side and there was a place for the matching tea cup on the other side of the dish. They were at some department store; Macy’s or Dillard’s or something.  The dishes were way too expensive for her and never seemed to go on sale.  My mom just watched those dishes.  Every so often she’d go up to the store and see if they were on sale or if they had sold yet.  Well, after about 6 months she went to the manager. She said to him, “You’ve had these dishes here for 6 months and they’ve never sold, how about you discount them for me and I’ll buy them.”  I can’t remember how much she asked for off the price, but she was well armed with facts and figures and the manager agreed!  That kind of bargaining never seems to happen anymore.  I don’t know if it’s because prices are already so low, or if I just lack the chutzpah to ask.

 

Recently though, I did strike a pretty good bargain with my sister-in-law, Maja.  Last Christmas she was knitting a really pretty scarf and I was admiring it. Now you have to understand in addition to being a shoe fanatic I also love scarves.  I also can not knit.  I tried it once and was all thumbs, and I thought it was the most boring thing in the entire world.  But, it just so happens I AM a very good quilter. Now Maja has made a few simple quilts, but I knew that my quilting ability was farther along than hers.  So, I asked her if we could maybe make a trade.  Could I make her something and then maybe she would give me that scarf she was making.  She thought for awhile and decided she wanted a tree skirt.  We decided that a tree skirt was a little more complex and one tree skirt equaled two scarves and shook hands on it.  I went home that Christmas with my pretty new scarf:

I told Maja that I would make her a tree skirt before the following Christmas and she promised me another scarf.  I asked for a blue and brown one.  I’m still waiting for my scarf, but I think she’s working on it. :) 

 

Maja was up here a few weeks ago and we went to the quilt store together and picked out fabric for her tree skirt.  I had found a pattern I thought was pretty and she approved it.  She told me that she was collecting those red and cream Swedish Christmas tree ornaments. So, we went with those colors in her tree skirt.  I finished her tree skirt yesterday and am taking it to her at Thanksgiving:

I’m sure you have some skill, something you are good at. Maybe it’s cooking, sewing, house cleaning or childcare. The sky’s the limit as to what you can barter with.  So get out there and make a deal!  You just might end up with something you’ve always wanted. And who knows, you might end up with a new friend or two.