Let's Make a Deal
Allan Stark says everything is negotiable (but it helps to havehim
on your side).
. Photograph by Kiko
Ricote.
Talk to
Allan Stark once, and you're adopted.
It doesn't matter that you're just another bargain hunter who wants
to save a few bucks on an immense plasma TV or a state-of-the-art
refrigerator or a hybrid Lexus SUV. Allan adopts your aims as his
own. He'll negotiate the deal for you and split the savings with
you fifty-fifty.
He may end up caring more about your goals, you'll discover, than
you do.
He'll call to tell you trivial yet useful information.
He'll definitely call to tell you a joke.
His enthusiasm for negotiating is so contagious that, by the time
you have your new flat-screen TV or refrigerator or Lexus, you'll
be thinking of other big-ticket items you want to buy. You'll check
your cell phone for contacts who might be in the market. When
you're out shopping, you'll ask the salesperson whether he can get
you a discount.
When you pick your children up at soccer practice, you'll tell them
Allan's jokes (provided they're clean). And the kids will laugh -
harder than they do at your jokes. They'd probably laugh even more
if Allan told them the jokes himself.
BY THE END of my first conversation with Allan, he is inviting me
to visit him in
Boca Raton,
Florida, offering to pick me up at the
airport, and planning where we'll have lunch and dinner. "I tell
you, you'll like it here," he says. "It's a garden spot. And I'm a
good guy. I'll take you on a tour of the town. It'll be just like
visiting your uncle Allan."