TRUMP: I go to Asprey, Tiffany, and Fred Leighton for
jewelry. Dolce & Gabbana for clothing. And Manolo Blahnik for
shoes. They like it when I walk into
these places, and they actually give me good deals.
AMERICAN WAY: Wait a minute. They give you good
deals?
TRUMP: It's funny, but it's like when I go to restaurants,
and the owners never have me pay for meals. It makes me feel kind
of guilty, although I know that if I wasn't hot and I needed the
meals, I would be paying for them. It doesn't make sense and it's
not right, but that's the way it is.
AMERICAN WAY: If you weren't The Donald, how would
you get the price down in a high-end Manhattan boutique?
TRUMP: You can negotiate every price in every store,
although Tiffany is hard. Once a company becomes a big chain, the
people in the individual stores have no power to negotiate. So you
have to go to an independent place. You can negotiate, for example,
with all the dress companies. A woman is foolish to buy an
expensive dress and not negotiate. If she doesn't negotiate, she's
just wasting money. I walk into a place and offer to give them
$2,000 for a $10,000 item. It's a little embarrassing because I'm
Trump, but I get a nice discount. Maybe they'll sell it to me for
$5,000. Other people can do the same thing. But you have to be
willing to walk away. If you're not going to walk away, they'll
stand up and insist that they can't do it for less than the asking
price. Walk away a couple times and they will eventually bring it
down for you.
AMERICAN WAY: What if you want to splurge after, say,
having your TV show picked up? What then?
TRUMP: Honestly, I don't go out and splurge.
AMERICAN WAY: So you wouldn't buy yourself a Ferrari
or something?