Hagglers hitting pay dirt at the mall

NEW YORK -- —  If you’re looking for an extra bargain before the holidays, you may only have to ask.

With holiday sales shaping up to be the lowest in years, retailers say they’re extending return policies, volunteering on-the-spot discounts and even letting customers haggle prices well down from what’s marked in a desperate bid to make cash registers ring.

“You’d have to be a moron not to ask for a discount,” said Stephen Hoch, a retailing expert at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

More and more consumers are doing just that, treating a trip to the mall like a visit to the used-car lot.

Allen Chen, a part-time cashier at a J. Crew store in White Plains, N.Y., said shoppers with 2-month-old receipts were asking for partial refunds for items now on sale. Normally, the store’s policy is to refund the difference between an item’s purchase price and a later sale price only if it goes on sale within seven days of the purchase.

“When I tell them it is past the seven-day policy, they tell me that they will just return it and re-buy it” at the sale price, Chen said, adding that his store managers are allowing customers to do so most of the time.

Shoppers are also being far more savvy about asking retailers to match a competitor’s lower price.

While shopping for Blu-ray discs at a Los Angeles Best Buy, Luis Levy used his cellphone to check the price at nearby competitors. Each disc was $10 cheaper at Circuit City or Wal-Mart. Best Buy matched the lower prices.

Diana Thang, manager of Grace Jewelers near San Francisco’s Union Square, said she and her staff were bargaining more than she ever had in two-plus decades in the business. But it’s not working wonders.

“They have a budget,” Thang said of most customers this season. “We give a low, low price and they still can’t accept it. They’re looking at more-than-$1,000 stuff, and they want to spend $200 or $300.”

With sales slow at virtually all retailers, experts say customers have the upper hand. And even some who don’t explicitly ask for a discount or price match are pressing for better deals.

Jill duPont, owner of a small women’s clothing and accessories boutique called Out of the Box in Greenwich, Conn., said she had felt some pressure to mark her prices down to be competitive with others.

“Customers aren’t shy about telling us what a good price they found somewhere else,” she said.

For some retailers, desperation is setting in. The new year brings new inventory, so retailers typically try to clear out the old stock by year’s end. Stores are increasingly willing to do whatever they can to get rid of merchandise -- even offering discounts on the spot.

Erica Pearson of Brooklyn, N.Y., was debating which pair of Camper shoes to buy at a Saga Shoes store in Manhattan when a salesman offered her a deal if she bought both.

“The manager asked me what I wanted to pay for both of them,” Pearson said. She wound up getting about $40 off the total and paying no sales tax.

The situation varies at cosmetics counters, said Ehtisham Khan, who asked that the major retailer where he worked in San Francisco not be named. The biggest-name vendors aren’t bargaining; some aren’t even offering specials for big spenders. But smaller makeup and perfume companies are piling on the freebies, he said, and it’s driving sales.

“You give them an extra travel size or a couple fragrance samples, and they’ll buy an extra item rather than wait until later,” Khan said.

Of course, not every retailer is willing to haggle.

Adam Lippes, owner of a two-store high-end contemporary clothing chain called Adam, said he was offering bigger sales this year at his location in Manhattan’s trendy meatpacking district to cater to more budget-conscious shoppers. But he has had to retrain his sales staff to explain to shoppers why a garment shouldn’t be sold for still less.

“The sales staff has to understand the clothes,” he said. “It’s more work.”

Lippes recently talked a customer out of demanding $200 off a $450 dress that was already discounted 25% by explaining that it was made with high-quality Italian fabric and manufactured in New York.

Other retailers are giving consumers more wiggle room for returns instead of haggling over prices.

Even Circuit City Stores Inc., which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has extended its holiday return deadline to Jan. 31, spokesman Jim Babb said. The chain previously required items such as cameras and computers to be returned by Jan. 8 and others by Jan. 25.

If the International Council of Shopping Centers’ prediction for this season’s sales comes true, it would be the weakest season since the index of same-store sales started in 1969. The group expects same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to be down 1% in November and December -- maybe more -- compared with last year.

Even massive discounts on Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the point when retailers began to turn a profit -- didn’t do much to help boost sales.

“Retailers have pulled every single trick out of their quiver of arrows that has worked in the past, and what they’re seeing this year is that it’s just not working,” said Hoch, the Wharton School expert.

DuPont said her normal return policy “became history” about a month ago after her customers begged her to let them return their normally nonreturnable sale purchases after Christmas.

“We caved in, reluctant to turn away business,” she said. “We’re not looking forward to what Dec. 26 brings.”

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Bartering basics

Here are some tips on how to haggle.

* Be nice. Retailers won’t sell you anything if they don’t think you appreciate their merchandise. Don’t ask for a price that’s too low. Flatter retailers first.

* Buy three, get one free? If you’re buying several items, ask whether the merchant will throw in an additional item free or at a discount.

* Cash is king. Small independent stores and boutiques will often agree to waive the sales tax if you pay cash.

* Look at the sale rack. Merchants are eager to move things on the sale rack, which means they’re ripe for haggling. On the flip side, don’t ask for a bargain for products in high demand.

* Timing is everything. Haggling works well in between seasons, when stores want to move their merchandise to make room for the new stuff. It’s also good to try late in the day, when salespeople are looking to get a little more cash in the till.

* Always ask about discounts. Chain stores often advertise discount coupons that may not be promoted within the store. Ask about these; you probably don’t need the coupon or ad to get the discount.

* Loyalty counts. Merchants prize regular customers. If you do a lot of business at a particular store, be sure to ask for a deal now and then.

-- Alana Semuels