Downturn upside: The art of haggling returns

My father, Bob, owns a carpet and hardwood flooring store in New Hampshire. It's among the industries that's suffered great collateral damage from the downturn. Builders aren't building. Homeowners aren't remodeling. He's very ready to make deals.

And his customers know it.

"Definitely," he says. "They're really talking me down."

A new Economist article this week reports that an old tradition is making a comeback as consumers feel the pinch of the recession. According to America’s Research Group, a market-research firm, 72% of American consumers have haggled in the past four months, compared with 56% a year earlier.

What might surprise you is the places where prices are flexible - upscale department stores like Nordstrom, rates on consumer credit cards, charges at your doctor's office.

Certainly, consumers have forever shopped for bargains, compared prices, taken quotes to competitors. But an outright haggle - a plain "can you cut a few bucks off this?" - seemed, well, unseemly in our recent era of prosperity. Besides, most businesses had no motivation to entertain such negotiations. They could sell at full price to the next person in the door.

Now those same businesses are calling their distributors to haggle a better wholesale price.

So, a couple tips to keep in mind, from this former retail salesperson:

1) Just ask. A simple, "I was hoping to pay a little less." There's no shame. Salespeople expect it. Many of them have spent years seeing how much they can get you to pay.

2) Don't be insulted if the answer is no. Some retailers already have some or all items at a stay-in-business margin.

Keep in mind, too, that most retailers already know how low they're willing to go on a price. Or they mark price tags at a level that will allow customers the satisfaction of a negotiated discount. What follows is as old as commerce itself - the tug of buy and sell, of finding a price that two people can be happy - or less-than-miserable - about. Try it.

Have you been haggling more - or been haggled? Tell us about a deal you've made or given.