Watch the Upsells!
By Doris Dobkins
You've planned all year for this shopping day. Your holiday budget
is set. You are determined to stick to it and you have high hopes
of not overspending.
First stop, the local mall. At the mall, your first purchase is a
pair of tennis shoes. $29.95. Fine, you budget was $33. That will
just cover the taxes. Then you get the upsell. Your shoes won't be
complete unless you purchase their ultra super spicy clean scented
leather cleaner and polisher. It's only $5.99.
Next stop, an icee because you are worn out. You tell the clerk
that you want a small size for $1.39. She says, for $.79 cents more
you can get the Santa cup upgrade. There's not any more icee, just
the Santa head on the cup.
Now you head down the hall packed with other eager shoppers to the beauty and
bath boutique. You smell all the tempting lotions and settle
on two bottles of green apple. One costs $6.00 but they offer
you two for $10.00. What a deal.
Finally, about six hours later, you drag yourself and your eighteen
bags out of the store to your car and drive home. Upon arriving at
home, you pull out your calculator and all your receipts for the
day. Total = $520.75. Oh my, what could have gone wrong. My budget
was $350.00 and I had everything planned out so well.
Your problem is called upsells! They are big this year and they are
persuasive.
I spent two hours at the new mall in town last week. In every store
I went to, they tried to sell me something additional related to my
purchase. They pushed, they pulled, they persuaded and looked at me
crazy when I said no. These uncomfortable encounters were ruining
the fun of my holiday shopping experience.
I finally decided the only way to handle this was to take the
offensive approach. I simply said, "I'm not interested in your
upsell. It's a great strategy but it won't work on me." All of a
sudden, the sales associates were on the defensive, back peddling
with excuses of just trying to help, etc.
In Summary:
You really don't need that plastic Santa Claus cap on your paper
cup, or that new accessory or the shoe cleaner or the extra bottle
of lotion. If you are like me, you have 15 of each of the above
mentioned items sitting in a drawer at home.
Sales associates are becoming experts at making you feel like you
need these things at the critical moment of payment.
Stand firm and just say no. If you have to:
Think Football.
Think Offense.
It's your life and your money that pays for that purchase.
Don't let yourself be talked into a last minute upsell.
I'm proud to say that during my adventure at the mall last weekend,
I won the upsell battle. I wish you the best in your battle as
well. Once you get the hang of it, it can almost be "fun".
About The Author:
Doris Dobkins is the Money Saving Author of "Financial Freedom A-Z
Home Study Course" and publisher of the free weekly ezine $mart Money
New$. You can subscribe to $mart Money New$ by sending an email to:
mailto:join-smart_money_news@nova.sparklist.com
or sign up at her web site, http://www.creativefinances.com
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