Don’t Fall For “Sucker Prices” at Baby Gyms

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The first few months after my daughter was born my new mommy friends and I went on some serious hunts for mommy and me classes around Beijing. We tested everything from international brands like Gymboree and MyGym to the more local ones like NYKid, Spring, and Little Oasis. Basically, we were super adamant about finding places for our kids to get the maximum interaction they can to improve their social skills.

We all ended up settling for different ones, and some for none at all, but after multiple trial classes, I became an expert in one thing - negotiating prices.

I don't know how they're done in other counties, but here, one thing I found questionable but which they all do is that none of these places will list their pricing and even when their sales rep is telling you their pitch and showing you the price list, you're not allowed to take a picture of it.

What are they hiding?

It's quite simple actually. Not everyone who signs up for the classes purchased it at the same price. The price they list should never be the one you pay for. Let's just call that the "sucker's price" because there's always some special promotion or discount going on. Usually, you don't even need to ask for it, most will assume that it's common knowledge that no one pays the listed price and will tell you the discounted one right off the bat.

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But you can keep asking for more stuff! These classes are always sold in packages of around 90something. They're designed to last at least a year if your kid goes there every day, so purchasing a package ends up being a pretty sizable chunk of money.

Don't settle for the freebie branded stuff. Most aren't that practical and you can buy them all on Taobao. Ask for stuff you really need/want.

It's difficult for the sales rep and even store manager to approve monetary discounts because that'll show up on their report and over time, if they keep giving discounts, they'll have to report to their corporate office or store owner and explain why they're unable to sell their packages at the marketed rate. From their perspective, this is out of their authority and they're not going to risk getting into trouble for you.

But what you can ask for are extra classes because if you're already discussing rates it pretty much means you like the quality of the classes they offer and the more the better.

Giving a few extra classes is something that sales reps are authorized to do. Gaining a new student means they're one step closer to achieving their quarterly target so giving out a few extra classes to do so is easy-peasy for them.

One such place offered just this for me last week. Their "sucker price" was RMB24,800 for 96 classes. Then right off the bat, I was offered a RMB2,000 discount as part of some special promotion they have going on. Don't worry if you miss one. There's always some kind of special promotion going on... Then after telling them about my dilemma between choosing them or their competitor that's also in the same mall I was offered 9 more classes. After telling them I needed some time to think about it I was offered 2 more free trial classes.

Which brings it to a total of 107 classes for RMB22,800. This comes out to RMB213 per class instead of RMB258 per class.

Other things we've been able to negotiate for is splitting a package with another family. This is something that will take approval from the store manager and not something they'll be keen to do since all of these places specifically say that you can't share a membership, but with the right reason (and depending on how much they want to achieve their sales target), they will give it to you.

Is it worth the price? Well, that's up to you to decide. Personally, I'm a fan of these classes since it offers my daughter a place to interact with different kids in a structured environment.

And of course, there are the art classes with their paints that I know I won't let her mess around with at home until she's older, so for us, yeah, it's worth the price.

Pro Tip: Be nice to the teachers and staff! It goes without saying that you should be a good example to your kids, but when I finally decided on a place for my daughter the teacher that led her trial class helped apply for additional classes for her after she and I clicked so well when we met.

Good luck negotiating!

Images: Mina Yan

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