I recently read an article on MSN about personal negotiation titled ‘Haggle anywhere .. Even in big box stores’ on how you can negotiate in places that you never thought possible. Personally, I negotiate in one shape or form all day long as part of my job, so in personal life I just want it done. In other words, if you are a decent sales rep, I am a pretty easy sell. Plus, my dad used to do this and when I was a kid it made me uncomfortable. So I don’t do it often.

In the article they basically said that you can negotiate in all big box stores (although I doubt that this applies to Costco). The opening line being ‘What is your recession price?’.

"The thing people don’t understand about the retail industry, especially brick-and-mortar stores, is that prices aren’t fixed," said Albert Ko, a co-founder of bargain-hunting site CheapCheapCheap.com. "With the economy, it’s all about the numbers and getting goods sold. . . . They’re willing to listen and work with you."

Interesting. By accident I did this two weeks ago. We are almost moved into a house (ending three months on the road for me) and I needed an LCD mounting kit. I went to Home Depot and saw one for $169 but it looked flimsy. So I walked next door to Future Shop. It was dead in there, so they were clearly up for a sale. The one I wanted was $369. I simply looked at him and said ‘I understand this is better quality, but I was over at Home Depot and they have one for less than half the price. It isn’t twice as good’. He said wait a minute and came back to tell me that I could have it for $300.

I saved $100 without even negotiating.

The same goes for contractors. I am not sure if there is a recession out there. As we are moving into a new house, it sure seems like they are not very interested in returning our calls or earning our business. We had a contractor in and we told him we were in a hurry so he gave us a price to paint the house. When I heard it, after sitting down and slowing my heart rate, I suggested to Narda that we should get a few more quotes. I called 8 painters and left messages, getting 3 return calls. Shocking that only 3 returned the call, business must be good. We then went on and got 2 quotes and sure enough, the first guy was way high thinking that we would not benchmark the price. In the end, we will do it for less than half the original quote.

So while I hate doing it, seems like a fair deal only comes from a little haggling.