How we got a 32% discount on outdoor furniture!

We have an outdoor area just outside the back door which is disparately under utilised as it is quite bare without any outdoor furniture. So what do we do in this situation? We went shopping!

About half an hour drive away at Narre Warren, there is an large shopping area and includes many of the larger shops like Harvey Norman, BBQ Galores and Ray Tents city.

We finally arrived at one particular shop that specialise in outdoor furniture. We were looking for an aluminum framed furniture with cloth backed chairs. In one corner of the shop floor, we noticed a set for sale, it comes with six chairs and a glass table top. The whole ensemble fits our back area just right, and it is also on sale!

We started the bargaining process by asking if we are able to mix and match the table with a different set of chairs as we are not too keen on the standard chairs. Specifically, we pointed to set of wicker chairs that were also on sale.

The shop assistance went to the counter and came back with a price of $699 for the set. She told us that this is a special price to offload the last remaining stock of these items. We see this as an opportunity to reduce the price further. The RRP on these items were about $840. My wife and I had a chat about it, and asked if she could the deal at $600 as this was budget for the furniture. I was not too sure if she believed about the "budget" line, however after a few moments she relented but stated that this is a pick up price only. Sweet! We left a $100 holding deposit on the items and left the store extremely happy.

One week later, we received a phone call from the store manager saying that they could not find 2 of the 6 chairs that we ordered, and they will have to order it from their supplier if we still want to proceed with the order. Not wanting to let go of a good deal, I said yes. The store manager gave me a couple of choices.

1. pick the tables and the four chairs now, and return later for the other two chairs when they are available.
   
2. wait till the two chairs are available and pickup the all the items in one go.

I felt that there is an opportunity to get a bit more from the deal and suggest to the store manager that we will wait until the two chairs are available and that they throw in free delivery (a $45 cost) as this delay was caused by them. The store manager agreed after a few moments hesitation.

So far, we have gained a total of $295 or a discount of 33% on the package . That was a pretty good deal.

It gets better, the store manager rang my wife yesterday to inform us that they are not able to deliver the goods this week as their delivery truck is fully booked. I think this is their way of recuperating some cost. My wife stood her ground and told them they are not doing what they promise so they gave us a further $30 off the price. The cost of the outdoor furniture is now $570. At the end of the day, we prefer a further $30 discount instead of free delivery as we don't really pay for the delivery, but $30 is hard cash that doesn't get handed over.

So the final discount is a total of $270, or a discount of 32%. Still a pretty good discount.