| Doris Dobkins is the publisher of $mart Money New$. You can subscribe by
visiting her web site at
CreativeFinances.com |
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,
your 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".
--End--
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