Let's Make a Deal!

Ring Ring.
I answer the phone, look up a dictionary for a woman. She wants fourteen copies for tomorrow. We have ten in stock and I offer to hold them for her.
"What is the price?"
"They're each $27.99," I state.
"Is that the best price you can offer?" she counters.

Why, oh why, do people think they can bargain with me?
This isn't a yard sale. It isn't a street bazaar. I can't just magically shave numbers off of a price.
Yes, we do give discounts to certain institutions. Yes, alumni and faculty receive a percentage off. And yes, we want your business and will try our best to accomodate you. But seriously? "Is that the best you can offer?" Is not warming the cockles of my stone-cold heart.

(And for the record, she was hoping to get them for $7 each because of some deal she'd stumbled across a couple years ago in a bargain room at another store. So even when I said we could probably apply a 20% educator discount, she wasn't too impressed with my altruism. This is a business, for goodness sake. We can't just give shit away. Again, not a yard sale. No bargaining!)