Page 168 - Musings 2020

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A Position to Bargain

Vedant Parwal 2017A4PS0390P

Mr. Menon was at the peak of his life. He came to be known as ‘Menon the deal Maker’
because of his skillful bargaining. His pro-routine and pro-protocol approach to things made
his company one of the best performers in the last quarter. He had to travel for a business
meeting over the weekend, so he promised his daughter that he’d come home early and spend
some time with her before leaving. As per his promise he reached early, walked into his
house opened his shoes, and put it in the shoe-rack. The next day he wakes up, wears the best
suit in his possession, wears his shoes and leaves.

He traveled business class to a city and then he took a cab to the remote town he was headed
for. He reached, paid the driver and got out of the cab. While he was getting out of the cab he
observed that all this while the shoes that he was wearing were from two different pairs. He
cursed his luck and now he knew that he was in trouble. There was no way that he was going
to attend that meeting with those pairs of shoes. He decided to buy a new pair of formal shoes
to save him from a possible humiliation.

After a lot of searching, he finally found a shoe store, probably this was the only shoe store in
town. He looked at his watch and he knew that he’d better hurry now. He walks in and asks
the salesman, “Hello, I’m looking for a pair of formal shoes, what’s the best you’ve got? Size
nine please.”

The salesman says, “I’ve got only the best, Sir.”

After some searching, the salesman dusts a box and pulls out a decent looking pair of formal
shoes that might just work out for the man. The man decides to buy them, “How much for
this?” pulling his wallet out.

“Three hundred dollars, Sir”, says the salesman with quite a straight face.

The size of his eyes doubled upon hearing his price, “You’ve got to be joking, these shoes are
definitely not worth this, be reasonable. Give me a realistic price”, the man said this in a tone
that resonated with his years of experienced bargaining.

The salesman looks at his immaculate suit and then looks at his shoes, he smirks and says,
“Sir, do you think, you are in a position to bargain?”

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