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The recession has caused the number of shopkeepers willing to let bargain hunters haggle over the price of goods, to be substantially raised.

Roughly two thirds of high street stores will give discounts to shoppers brave enough to bargain, according to moneysupermarket.com.

The study found 61% of shop owners and managers report that the recession has made them more likely to offer their customers, ‘non sale’ discounts, in order to close deals.
However shoppers have been relatively coy when it comes to the art of bargaining, the study found, and especially in England. 1% of retailers in that country said that customers rarely haggle and only 15% report that they have a strict ‘no discounts’ policy.

A third of shoppers said they had never tried to negotiate a price down on something which they were buying, and the majority of those polled said that the sheer embarrassment of being caught haggling over a price, is what holds them back from trying to get a better deal. Only 10% said they haggle on a regular basis.

But of those who try negotiating, they report being successful on two out of three occasions and, on average, haggled a 13.5% discount.

Just 7% of hagglers received a direct “no” from the retailer and 73% of people who asked for free items to be thrown in with a purchase, proved successful. The study claimed that consumers feel most comfortable negotiating on electronic items such as TVs, DVD recorders and stereos.