In an earlier video, Eliot tells the story of shopping for a rug with his brother in Finland. In this one, Sakke explains why he didn't try to push the price down.
Transcript:
“Hey, Sakke. What’s going on?
Hello, Darrow.
Um, so…
Everything’s good.
Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Oh, no no no.
You’re going to tell me your side of the story of purchasing the rug. We’ve heard Eliot’s side (https://youtu.be/tV0EPt5QYlA). Now it’s your turn. Go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. I guess um or how about I say it like I wanna kind of illuminate um something maybe a kind of an error in uh my brother’s thinking, or I suppose a comprehension about what it is that I was actually doing. You know like what what what what I was actually like what does it mean to really “purchase” something. Um essentially what is it that I’m really “buying”? What what am I spending my money on? Um and so anyway basically um I went to buy a rug. Um, and I needed the rug to be two hundred and fifty centimeters by two hundred and fifty centimeters. Which is a square rug. And um when I looked online, uh, most rugs are rectangular. Uh, it’s very odd to have an even sided rug. And uh I wasn’t sure if it was even possible to acquire a rug of you know this uh with these proportions which fits perfectly in my room. And uh it’s also very just a big deal for me to kind of decide to make this kind of big purchase ‘cause I tend to be very austere in a way, not really have anything. I uh mostly sit on the floor, put everything on the floor. So this rug was a very big deal to me. And also buying it in person, and all this stuff, um,…So basically I go to this store, and it wasn’t the store that I intended to go to. I was on the way to a particular Oriental rug store, and I wanted an Oriental style rug. But on the way I took like a strange turn, and came across another store, and I was like, “Oh, I’ll pop in here.” And I thought I could check out you know both stores and then do the kind of compare prices, compare whatever, blah, blah, blah. That whole thing. And I walked in there and um first it was a younger man who talked to me. And then his father came out from uh the back essentially. And they were asking me what I wanted, and I told them I wanted a rug two hundred and fifty centimeters by two hundred and fifty centimeters. Uh and they were like, “Well, that’s very odd.” And I told them uh, “Yeah, it kind of is.” And they asked me, “What else would I want it to…?”, and I said, “I would like it to be thick”. And they asked me you know uh like, “What color would you want it to be?” And I pointed to a particular rug that they had hung up there which was kind of a light green. I said, “Something like that.” and the older man thought for a moment, and said, “You know, we have just the rug downstairs. We can go and show it to you.” And um another thing about these men is that they they looked very interesting. Like like I couldn’t tell like where they were from. you know, like I like are they like they seemed very just kind of like homo sapien in a in a strange way. Like, like I couldn’t like pinpoint their race. I was like are they you know like Armenian or Azerbaijani, or something? It was something like like like I don’t know it was fascinating like just these these characters. And then they bring me down to the basement, and like it was it was really amazing what was down there. I mean it was like just stacked with these rugs just on top- like it was kind of like um like a Roald Dahl book or something. You know, they’re all just rolled up and just stacked on top of each other. And then these these two you know funny looking gentlemen they they they they pull out this rug, and and they unfurl about a third of it. And I’m looking at it, and uh they’re like, “Do you, do you want us to show the rest of it?”, and I said, “Uh, no need.” You know like I see, I mean I’m like you know what’s gonna happen? Like I’m like I’m not gonna make these guys freaking roll out the whole thing. It’s like “It looks beautiful.” It’s beau-and I couldn’t even I couldn’t you know I couldn’t have imagined it to look so beautiful, really. It was something, it was very simple, it was very simple and pure. And um oh and they had asked me before like how much was I willing to spend, and I said you know like, “No more than eight hundred.” Um so I really wanted a nice rug, like a really nice rug.
Wait a second. Eight hundred what? Eight hundred…?
Euros.
Euros, OK.
Yeah, um and um so anyway they said that they would you know sell it to me for five hundred. And I want to make this clear that I am very aware of the fact that when a salesperson gives you a price, you’re not supposed to take the first offer. You know. That’s the first rule of sales. And that they know that. And so they will tell you a price which is too high because they know that you’re supposed to ask for a lower price to get down. And so there’s this thing with you know that we’re modern men and so that first price is supposed to be unreasonable to us. But to me it was a perfectly reasonable price. It was two hundred and fifty centimeters by two hundred and fifty centimeters. Coming out to five hundred euros. I mean like just in my mind the kind of the geometry of it all you know it just fit so perfect. And the fact I walked in the store with this very strange request. And it wasn’t even the store I intended to go to. And I met these very fine gentlemen. And they gave me exactly what I wanted.
It just felt right.
It it just felt right. And then like it just like it was like everything was going so perfectly like, why would I want to introduce this kind of savage brutal you know.
Can I just say this? Can I say one thing?
Yeah.
When Eliot said the story to me, in the other video (https://youtu.be/tV0EPt5QYlA) I was thinking what you’re saying right now. I was thinking like I was trying to imagine why you didn’t try to push the price down, and I was thinking probably it was that situation where Sakke felt like everything was just perfect as it was, and he didn’t wanna like really introduce any like any weird element to that situation. That’s what I was thinking. I really was.
I think, I think there’s like another element to this too where it’s like a part of me was also thinking like man like if I had a girlfriend right and I was living with her and we were going together to buy some rug right or a wife or a part-you know what I mean, and it like this whole thing would be a nightmare. But here I’m alone. I’m doing this for me. And and and then also it’s like I really want this rug. You know. And and these guys provided such a lovely service. Like it’s weird that like…Are we only supposed to be generous to homeless people? Like can’t we also be gen-like shouldn’t we reward you know it just and just the numbers in my head, the two hundred and fifty two hundred and fifty five hundred. It just like this I mean that’s how much it’s worth to me.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
And then every time I go and I come home, and I see the rug, I know I paid five hundred euros for it. And and also I remember the experience of buying the rug, you see, and it’s a lovely memory in my head, like I’m also buying the memory of it. Like it’s a you know this like like I’m buying happiness you know and like if I were to try to finagle down right? It’s kind of like I’m only in my head uh growing this disdain for spending money. And like I’m prioritizing saving money. But in my head I’m also then making spending money painful. So in the future that that that element is always gonna be there. And so how can I ever really enjoy money if I can’t value you know what a beautiful thing it is to spend money?
Also like Eliot’s story tells you something about maybe like he’s lived like in New York. And New Yorkers are all about finagling as you said. So it’s like for him, and maybe for Sam too I don’t know, it’s just like, it’s second nature to finagle. It’s just part of like what you do. You just do it. It’s not even like a conscious decision to push the price down. It’s like they don’t even think, “Oh, that price is too high. I wanna push it down.” It’s just like, “Oh, he said that price, so of course I’m not gonna pay that price. I’m gonna try to push it down. That’s what you do.” But for you, you’re coming, I think you’re coming at it from a different perspective, just from a different way of thinking, and everything you just said makes total sense to me. Like I think maybe I’m a little closer to you like, and I would get the same criticism from them, like, “Hey, Darrow, you didn’t even like try to talk this guy down.” I think they would probably give me the same.
But it’s like I didn’t go there to get a deal. I went there to get a rug. You know what I mean?!"
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