Not Negotiable

This past Shabbos, Rabbi Friedman spoke about the episdoe of Avraham's purchase of maaras hamchpela from Ephron. Chazal are critical of Ephron who was a big talker -- saying "you want the field, take it; I give it to you as a gift" -- who didn't even do a little, for when it came down to the actual sale, he exacted a high price. Now if Avraham knew that the price was a high, why did he not bargain it down? (One would think that bargaining would have ensued no matter what price was quoted.) It is possible that Avraham could have obtained the property at a cheaper price. But in this case, he did not want the seller to have any regrets about the sale that would reslt in his claiming to have been forced into the transaction. Rabbi Friedman pointed out that Avraham was avoiding a situation in which the seller may have any negative feeling about the deal by paying the full asking price. There are situations in which the impression one is making is of far greater value than the money in question.

My note on this is that it is very true. Some people just seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to hearing a price quote of saying, "You have to do better than that for me." or "That's too high; I never pay that much." or "What is the best you can do for me?" or just an offer of about half the price quoted. In the book Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America by Stephen G. Bloom, one of the things that really alienates the neighborhood merchants of Postville is the Chassdim's haggling. They are highly offended by the insinuation inherent in the attempt to beat the price down that their pricing is not fair to begin with and generally refuse to enter inito such negotations. The Jews in a strange land would have made a much better impression by paying the listed price rather than by reinforcing negative stereotypes in their attemtp to save a couple of dollars on a pair of shoes.