Shops cave in on hagglers in ‘souk Britain’ - Times Online I have to say that I learnt from my father that "offering" an amount below the stated price was always worth a punt. Us Indians have always haggled :becky: When I came back from a three month holiday from India in the late 1980s, I even tried to haggle with the taxi driver over the fare (to the embarrassment of my mother) as it had become a habit over there. Actually, I even embaressed my rellies over there because I was pusing it even further than they would. One uncle declaring "stop it, they do have a family to feed" The last time I haggled was in a second hand bookshop about 5 or 6 weeks ago, when I saved about 12 quid on a batch of books (and even got a freebie booklet!)
The "traditional" place to do it is when buying a car. However, we've certainly done it when buying the TV, computer and other things such as ovens etc. I do it with old trucks and the bits and pieces I pick up for them but have to admit to not having done it for shoes and crockery. It pays to be cheeky though. My Dad often goes to the trades desk of his local hardware warehouse in his "work" clothes and automatically gets a 10% discount. He also regularly asks service people what their "Wednesday afternoon special" is. As with India, Turkey is a great place to haggle. We were there in 2005 on our honeymoon and had a great time in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Last haggling I did was pretty casual while buying a forklift - managed to get fruit boxes and storage shelves, about $400 worth, tacked on for $150 more than the asking price for the fork.
Mt father's favourite phrase used to be "cash price". For a longtime I didn't have a clue what that actually meant - until it was finally explained that it was a receiptless purchase (sshhh, don't tell the taxman but retailers will sell for cash, so VAT free). I certainly knew some hardware stores that did it back home - just never found them here
Tradesmen like it as well! LOL. With shops etc, makes you wonder just how much of a mark up they put on their stock.
Haggling Kyt, Almost exactly the phrase I use. "It is Pound Notes" usually gets a reduction in the"asking" price. Sometimes quite a substantial one. I learned how to haggle in the Cairo and Tunis Medina's. If the Dealer was laughing when you walked away you had paid about 3 times more than the item was worth. If he had only got a smile you had bought the item at a reasonable price that satisfied both parties.
One day i will take you all to a BIG antique fair, then stand back and watch as you all get eaten alive by the sharks. Have got fairly good at haggling prices there, as having spent some time working in the trade i am well aware that if a dealer isn't making at least a 150% profit on his sales then he won't last in the game. And asking for the cash price won't cut any ice. You get his best price, then beat him lower down to the trade price. And if he still won't come down? Walk away. We have tried it with ovens and TVs and such, paying cash, but they won't have it in this area of the world. Just get told to try your luck elsewhere if you push it too far.
Spot on Brian, been there, seen it and done it but for some reason was too embarrassed to try it here. I used to hate all those jokes about the thriftiness, or not, of Scotsmen. Regards
I do ... rapidly! My husband embarrasses me when he starts haggling no matter where we are. I just cannot do it!!
My mother-in-law does it - not that I go shopping with her if I can help it! I think her excuse is " We did it all the time in Aden!" (Where she was in 1963 where my wife was conceived)
