Haggling

Yes, it absolutely works. Easiest if you are a 'cash' buyer - ie eftpos or credit card. They tend to not knock off as much if you are using your GE card or other interest free offers.
Just ask the salesperson what their best price is and they will go check their systems to see what the mark up is, and what they can take off. Take the quote and then go do the same thing in all the other stores until you find the best deal.

Two examples that I have done lately:

Buying F&P Dishdrawers - Hill & Stewart quoted me a deal $100 less than the ticket price, Noels were offering $50 more than this, but had the flybuys so I wanted to buy from there. I told the salesperson that H&S had quoted the lower amount and so he matched it to get the sale. This was a cash purchase.

Bought a Dyson on the weekend - went to Noels, Bond & Bond and finally Harvey Norman. All had the same start price, Noels offered $50 off, B&B offered $100 off, and HN offered $150 off. Guess who got the sale! This one went on the GE card so despite that we still got a great deal.

Definitely pays to ask, and to shop around. Especially in the current market, shops will be desperate to get your business.

good luck!

When we brought our Plasma TV, I also wanted to get the wooden TV cabinet that they had in store. We had to buy the stand thingee for the TV too, so I just said to the guy would he be willing to reduce the price on any of the items, as we were going to be paying cash. We ended up paying full price for the TV and he reduced the price on the cabinet and the stand.. so I don't think there is any problem asking, they'll only say no...

I agree about Harvey Norman, when we have bought big ticket items we've never paid the marked price.

Also on my semi-regular trips to Michael Hill Jeweller I haven't paid the marked price in a long time...even when not on sale.

In both cases we've always asked if that is the best price or the best deal they can offer.

We definitely try it on, especially for the big ticket items.  I can't remember the last time I've bought something expensive without haggling.  Especially with cash sales but I've done it with items I'm getting on HP too. 

 

Over Christmas we went to Noel Leeming to buy a deep freezer, washing machine and external hard drive on an interest free/no repayments for 12 months HP, while he was processing our application we went for a wander and saw the same deep freezer cheaper somewhere else, we didn't want to buy it from the other place because we wanted the finance deal but I took a pxt of the product and a closeup of the price tag, showed it to the sales rep from NL and got the price discounted accordingly.

 

A bit OT because it's not really haggling but I bought a convection heater the other week which with 30% off was $70 but one of the boxes had been mispriced and was showing $41 so naturally I chose this one, took it to the counter and pointed out the price ticket and got the heater for $41.  Sometimes it pays to be cheeky.

Yep we did that with Noels when we got our washing machine and fridge. Both cash purchases and I told them that if I wasn't happy with the deal I would go else where. I got them both for a very good price.

They won't discount so much on credit (GE etc0 as they get charged for finance and get charged wickedly and the costs come out of their commission as well.

We always bargain. I worked at Michael Hill for years and years, and hubby is a tight wad, so we rarely pay ticket for anything big either, UNELSS we know it is a gret deal. I also haggle if I am buyig more than one, IE shoes, if I buy 2 pairs, whats your best price? cheeky? yes, but you just never know...