Hate negotiating for a price cut? If you want to save money, you’d better get over it. The old art of haggling is making a comeback

If you’ve been to just about any store, of any kind, at any time in the past couple of years, it was probably at least slightly painful. ‘They’re charging how much?!’ you might have asked yourself, grumbling under your breath as you tap the card. Surely there must be a better way…

Enter the slightly lost art of haggling, being taken up by some to try to get discounts and lower prices.

Haggling has all but disappeared from our economy (at least the non-yard-sale parts of it). For the most part, what you see is what you pay. But some savvy consumers, grappling with high costs and rising inflation, are reviving the age-old retail strategy and making a return to dickering on prices.

“Haggling—an ancient practice among people in almost every culture ― remains one of the best ways to save money,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “Take mattresses. Sixty per cent of people who choose to haggle for a mattress succeeded ― and saved a median of $245.”

Consumer Reports surveyed 2,000 shoppers and found that 89 per cent of those who’d haggled for a better deal in the last few years did save money at least once.

And in this economy many companies, big and small, are willing to negotiate to make the sale.

“It works so well,” said Lisa Lee Freeman, editor in chief of Shop Smart magazine. “It doesn’t work every time, but my philosophy is: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. And when you get, you can save hundreds of dollars.”

Consumer Reports even tacked on a few tips for haggling that you can take into your daily life. (Technically these were about mattresses, but the principle is the same.)

“Before you haggle, make sure you have in mind what you’re interested in, what you’re willing to pay, and what the going rate is,” they said. “Bring up the competition or consider walking away: Fifteen per cent of hagglers said they specifically mentioned prices offered by competing mattress dealers to the seller. Of those 15 per cent, more than half ―57 per cent ― scored a deal.”

A little uncomfortable, at first? Sure. But worth it. After all, as the Wall Street Journal put it: “Things are way too expensive now to let an uncomfortable feeling stand in the way of a discount.”

Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.