Save Money - Just by Asking

Fiscal Fitness: Save $157.86 Just by Asking - Manage Your Life on Shine:

"A serious customer with cash to spend can really call the shots these days on everything from electronics to housing to a root canal. Really.
A 2007 Consumer Reports survey found that 90% of customers who negotiated with a salesperson got a price break on at least one purchase over a three-year period. They nabbed deals on furniture, electronics, appliances and even medical care, netting the best of the hagglers savings of $50 or more. And that was before the economy went all kamikaze.
In other words, it really does pay to ask, particularly these days when retailers and service providers are struggling to get any cash flowing through the registers."

I love these types of articles.

When I was younger and going through my YUPPIE stage, it used to be "bad form" to haggle about the asking price of anything. If you did, your friends would call you a cheapskate, skinflint, tightwad, penny pincher, and a whole lot of other things that can't be mentioned in mixed company. If you did it a few times you ran the risk of being ostracized, never to be invited to "The Hamptons" again.

When I grew older and wiser I morphed from a YUPPIE with scads of disposable income, to an OUFIE (Old Urban Failure) who was constantly short on cash. Asking waiters for Doggy Bags became the norm when eating out. My transformation became complete the day I was at a Flea Market and saw an item I liked with a $50 price tag on it. For some reason I asked the seller if he was still running his "famous 50% off sale." Much to my surprise he said yes, and I got the item for $25, cash, no tax. It was then that I realized everything in life was negotiable. Since that time I've never paid retail for anything unless it was an absolute emergency.

I posted this article with the hope of making someone out there take the plunge and start negotiating price reductions "Just By Asking."

Remember, Never Pay Retail!