THE last time I haggled was on a beach in Goa. A girl was trying to sell me an ankle bracelet that I did not want.

She laid out her treasures on my sunbed and woke me up from my cocktail-induced dream to offer me a ‘very good price’ on her jewels. I felt it was only right to give her some Rupees. It was either that or have her sit at the end of my towel for the rest of the day offering me more tat.

She put forward her ‘very good price’. I said it was too expensive, she reduced it. I asked for more money off, she said she couldn’t go any lower. Somehow, we met in the middle. Of course, you don’t see this kind of haggling on the UK High Street, but shoppers can still ask for a discount or deal.

In the current economic climate, it is becoming common for a woman to ask for money-off if she pays cash for her new boots or for a man to ask for a free memory stick when he buys his new digital camera. So I hit St Helier in search of bargains. After the first shop, where I felt plain rude, and the second, where the sales assistant looked at me with utter disdain and made me feel like the cheapest person on earth, I got into the swing of it.

All the shops, bar one, did not want to be named in case readers flocked in their hundreds to try to bag a bargain, or viewed the shop as a discount store.

SUCCESSES
Jewellery
I WALKED into a jewellers and couldn’t pick out anything in particular so decided to be blunt. I asked the jeweller if there was room for negotiation on his prices and he very kindly offered me a ten per cent reduction on anything.

But he did say that nowadays a lot of people expect discounts when they shop for jewellery, which took some of the shine off my haggling skills. I’ll remember that for the next time I buy something pretty for my sister.

Photography
IT is so annoying when, after spending at least £100 on a digital camera, you have to pay another £20 or £30 for a decent memory stick in order to store the photographs.

And then there’s the camera case, which costs around £25 if you want it to last as long as the camera.
I managed to get a nice little deal on a Fuji camera worth £105, together with a memory stick and a case for £120. Not too shabby for Carly.

Holidays
NOW I kind of cheated here because I walked into a travel agent and realised I knew one of the travel consultants.
Mates’ rates, please. I wangled an all-inclusive holiday for two to Egypt for £869.20, and the hotel was a four-star. You can’t really argue with that, can you? If I didn’t have work, I would be jetting off to Sharm el-Sheikh on 3 February for seven nights to see the pyramids, Tutankhamun’s tomb and the Nile.

And with the Egyptian Pound being the currency out there, I would avoid being stung by the Euro. Although I knew the travel consultant, there are opportunities for everyone to haggle over the price of a holiday.
Just don’t offer to pay in cash because that makes no difference to travel agents. They already charge you to use a credit card anyway.

Electronics
I STROLLED into an electric shop and told the sales assistant I had recently bought a flat and wanted two flat screen televisions, one for the lounge and one for the bedroom.

Of course, I needed a DVD player (I was getting good at fibbing by this time). I offered cash in return for a discount, something a lot of shops will go for because it saves them card machine charges. The manager offered me the DVD player for free, but bearing in mind that the 22-in television was £269.99, the 37-in was £616.99 and the DVD player was £36.99, I was expecting a better deal –– but beggars can’t be choosers.

NSEW manager Kevin Smyrk explained that profit margins were tight for electronic goods, which made it hard to grant special discounts. ‘We always try to better a price if we can, but sometime we can’t,’ he said. ‘It’s hard, because profit margins are squeezed. People think we make a lot of money on goods, but the truth is that we really don’t.’

FAILURES
Clothing
THE fact that every clothes shop had a sale on made this rather difficult for me and the standard answer I would get was: ‘They are already reduced in the sale’.

I mentioned the sneering sales assistant earlier. Well, they were at their worst in the clothes shops. The one or two ladies I dealt with in the retail shops I visited looked at me with utter scorn when I asked for money off or for a deal of some kind.

But a manager I spoke to told me a bit about haggling in retail. He said that offering cash when trying to get a price down doesn’t really make much difference because the shop is still charged for putting cash into banks. And even though a debit card costs the shop 25p per transaction, large shops wouldn’t bat an eyelid over such a small amount. Credit card charges depend on the shop’s turnover. So, size-up the shop before you try to haggle. If it’s small, you might have a chance of getting a deal.

Handbags
I ENCOUNTERED the return of the evil sales assistants in my hunt for a bargain bag. However, one lady did say that I could come back and speak to her manager – much more pleasant than the sneering looks I was becoming used to.

Broadband
DOES anyone else get a little miffed that you have to pay for so many extras when you sign up to broadband?
Well, before you get any ideas, it is highly unlikely that you will get out of paying for them. No one-off joining deals, no throw-the-modem-in-for-free-if-I-sign-up-for-two-years, no discount on anything.

The sales assistants were like brick walls. But they were also pleasant and explained that installing broadband was more than flicking a couple of switches – it takes man power and time to carry out.

WITH purse strings tightening, I am sure I will haggle again. I’m not saying that I will ask for money off every time I buy something, but it’s worth being savvy and spotting the potential for negotiation. Have a go and you might be pleasantly surprised.