A little festive haggle

It is a custom more associated with the markets of exotic holiday destinations than the high streets of Britain. But shoppers can save hundreds of pounds in London stores if they haggle for their Christmas presents.

Forget the price tags on mobile phones, electrical goods and even furniture - some of the bestknown shops and department stores are able to offer discounts to the most demanding customers.

An Evening Standard investigation has found up to 20 per cent can be knocked off the bill if shoppers are prepared to haggle with staff.

Posing as Christmas shoppers, we visited 10 stores in Oxford Street and managed to get reductions in five.

Overall, haggling saved us hundreds on items including the latest mobile phone, a leather sofa and a widescreen television.

A spokesman for the Consumer's Association said it was well known within retail circles that discounts could be negotiated. However, many shoppers are too embarrassed to ask.

"You should always remember that every retailer knows how far they can go before they make no money on a sale," a spokesman said. "In the back of their mind they will have a figure they can go to - just try to push them as near to it as you can. This works well with older stock or stuff that they find harder to shift."

He added: "Keep an eye on which goods are not selling well - this year clothes and white goods are having a tough time.

"It might be alien to the British shopper to try to blag a reduction by haggling - but you really must try it."

Deals are particularly easy to negotiate on mobile phones. Stores are desperately trying to tempt shoppers into buying twoanda-half generation phones with computer software, internet access and cameras.

In The Link, we got the price of the new O2 Xda with a 64-megabyte memory down from £299.99 to £250.

At first, the money-off deal was only offered on a trade-in but eventually they agreed to a discount as long as the phone was bought on the spot.

Even better savings were to be made in Heals on Tottenham Court Road. There, a large leather sofa was advertised for £3,100. After saying we had a tight budget, the store agreed to drop to its sale price - despite the fact the sales do not start for another three weeks. The final price was £2,635, a reduction of 15 per cent.

And at Musical Vision, an electrical store on Tottenham Court Road, a 28in widescreen JVC television was whittled down from £649.99 to £625.

This year, experts believe consumers are in a strong position to negotiate a price. Some stores have a list of lower prices - not on display - with which they can secure a deal. Retailers also fear consumers will cut back on spending this Christmas due to the economic slowdown - leaving them with mountains of unsold stock.

But some shops - such as House of Fraser, Selfridges, John Lewis and Dixons - will not be beaten down on price unless customers can prove items can be bought for less elsewhere.

For many, Christmas shopping is stressful enough without haggling over prices. But it's worth it.