Some of us can negotiate, others just can't
Los Angeles Business Journal

Now that you have been reading about dealmakers extraordinaire, consider the plight of the non-dealmaker. Case in point: me. Nowhere was my ineptitude on the ways and means of bargaining more glaringly displayed than when it came time to buy crypt space.

My wife and I, acknowledging the inevitable, had responded to an ad in the paper. For sale, two final resting places at a freeway-close cemetery not 15 minutes from our house (25 during rush hour). Seemed ideal--well, as ideal as such matters can be. The sellers, it turned out, were all older couple who had moved to the desert and wanted a burial spot out there. We arranged to meet one Sunday afternoon.

Some due diligence on our part revealed that the couple's price was slightly less than what we would be paying the cemetery directly. On inspection, our spots were in an ideal corner location, with a stone bench directly in front and away from stairs, elevators and trash cans.

I was ready to pull out my checkbook. But just as we start walking to the cemetery's office to do the deal, my wife pulled me aside. Maybe we can get a better price. Bargaining on a crypt? I was not enthused. It just seems so ... undignified. We're getting a small discount already, so why not just shake hands, transfer some papers and be done with it?

But what really filtered through my brain was the prospect of having to bargain. The truth is I hate to bargain, whether it's for new cars or cemetery spots.