I guess if he wanted you to com back , he would have perhaps lowered his price 
Giving discount to a friend , a dealer , a sponsored person ,a run out model , YES . But somebody marching in the shop and demanding discount ....... Nathan , we must be living in a different world .
I think so Walter, I really do.
In both my examples, the asking price was above the market price and I was giving them the opportunity to actually make a sale - plenty of previous times, I've been in that situation and simply shut my mouth and walked out... Maybe this makes me a jerk for “demanding a discount”, but its really about me offering to spend my money with them, rather than elsewhere.
Look at it another way:
Imagine you've got some old parts sitting under the bench - let's say that they're old fork seals.
You haven't opened the box in ten years and you really don't know what's in there. Nobody's asked you for them, so you haven't even felt the need to open the box up.
Now, someone walks in and asks for some old fork seals that you know you don't have in stock. You say "there might be some in the box" so you drag it out and let the customer rummage through.
He finds a couple of pairs that he wants. They're seals that you can still easily buy from a number of suppliers and would retail for $30/pair.
Now tell me which is the most sensible option:
A) "Mate, they're old and rare and I've been holding onto them for years - gotta be worth $50 per pair, easy" - and the customer walks out without giving you any money and you have a box of old fork seals sitting under your bench for another ten years. They then get the seals from a local bike shop for $60 for two pairs and have no reason to darken your doorstep again.
B) "Ah look, they're dead stock. Gimme $50 for the two pairs and we're sweet" - and the customer happily takes the $10 discount compared to retail and walks out happy. And you have $50 in the till that you wouldn't otherwise have.
If you chose A), then I'd love to hear an explaination of why it makes more sense.
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More generally, customers can be seperated into three broad groups:
Group #1 is people who have planned the purchase, saved the cash, and are ready to buy. They'll generally shop around for the most suitable product at the best price, but they are usually easy people to sell to;
#2 are people who have suddenly discovered a need for a part - like a dead shock a week before a race meet. They'll be less motivated by price and quality and more motivated by getting it here, soon;
The final group is the one that most Aussie retailers generally ignore: People who see something at a price that they think is good and jump on the 'bargain'.
SuperCheap Auto and Bunnings are good at appealling to the third group of people - they get these people into their stores using loss-leaders (usually resulting in the punter buying other stuff at full mark-up) and they build the perception that they offer good value. The fact that the perception is often incorrect, is irrelevant - particularly if you're a competitor to these chains.
The first group is increasingly flocking to the internet to buy stuff, particularly if local retailers won't even try to price match.
So, I wonder how many businesses can survive on the second group alone? (Especially with quick freight from OS). This thread would suggest that the answer is "not many"...
Unless Aussie retailers recognise this and adapt, then they will find their businesses going backwards. Wreckers are (broadly speaking) the clearest example of a business that has ignored the first and third groups, and they're the clearest example of an industry that is failing,
despite consumer demand.
Bike shops are keen to follow, although at least some of them are realising this before its too late.
