Karen with a K Vs. The Gap

Today I will tell you about the most embarrassing moment of my recent life. It all started with a negotiations assignment. This year I'm taking my first Wharton class. For those not in the Penn bubble, Wharton has the number one business program in the country, and the school is kinda populated with a lot of people of the tool persuasion. The school is known for the tough curve and general not happy vibes. I have to take a negotiations class in the department in order to satisfy a requirement for my entrepreneurship minor. One of our assignments is to negotiate in a place where negotiations are not common (ie. not a car dealership or a flea market). I decided to take on the Gap with disastrous results.

So I walk in the store and wander around like a lost lamb for a while, terrified to make contact. I finally get the balls, grab a cardigan, and head over to the nice sales lady and ask her if I can talk to her about pricing information. She in turn introduces me to a big woman who looks like she means business. I ask her for a 15% discount, pointing out the wrinkles in the garment and that a discount would help make me a satisfied customer (that line was in our book, I'm not that big of a cheese ball). She stiffens her upper lip and says she doesn't give discounts for wrinkles. Something in her tone basically shut me up, but I couldn't let it go. I needed to complete the assignment. So I stutter on about there being a lot of similar sweaters all with wrinkles, and how inconvenient it'd be to have to iron it before I wore it.

No Dice. She quoted store policies and I was on my way without a glance back.

I actually think it would have been in Gap's best interest to give it to me. I felt so weird and embarrassed after the ordeal I don't think I'll ever show my face in there again. After watching a couple back episodes of Hannah Montana I was almost back to normal. Saints preserve me for whatever I end up doing for Real World Negotiation number 2.

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