IN the current economic climate, taking off on a spending spree is probably the last thing on Irish people’s minds. Sure enough, retail figures for June published last Friday confirm that it’s going to be a dreadful year for retailers.

With that in mind we decided to test their resolve and the flexibility of their published prices. We wanted to see if we could haggle for bargains in Dublin in the same way that holidaymakers look for lower prices when they hit the street markets of Marrakesh or London’s Covent Garden.

Having mentally run through my haggling strategies I headed to the Sony Centre on O’Connell Street and decided to ask for a handycam to film “an upcoming wedding”. The HD1080 was the pick of the bunch, but at €1,559 it was just too expensive.

When it was explained to the helpful assistant that a sale was possible if a discount could be agreed, he put the request to his manager. No problem: he suggested €1,350. The Sunday Times countered with €1,300. The deal was done and we had just saved ourselves a healthy €259. It was almost too easy.

With confidence sky-high, it was time to head for the Jervis Street centre. In Dixons we looked at laptops and played dumb as the shop assistant explained the advantages of each machine. The brand new Sony Vaio at €1,599.99 was the most appealing, but the assistant was in no mood to deal. He explained that any price ending in 99c was non-negotiable.

Our attention then moved to the HP 4GB laptop advertised at €1,279.97. After a brief discussion €50 was knocked off the price. A request for a free printer was rejected but we had better luck when we asked for a free laptop bag to be thrown in.

With these early discounts in the bag the campaign moved, fleetingly, to Arnotts on Henry Street. The assistant seemed astonished to be asked for a discount on a new Guess bag. She slowly moved it out of my touching distance, clearly concerned that we might just walk away with it anyway.

We got right back on track, however, at H Samuel where the prize catch was a beautiful Citizen perpetual calendar men’s watch priced at €435. I told the friendly sales assistant I was looking for a gift for my father’s 50th birthday. I also enquired about engraving and was quoted €20. That was the signal to strike.

With the offer of a cash payment the price was immediately cut by 5% but that wasn’t enough. I explained that my sister and I had to club together to get the watch and the story worked. The watch was ours — with engraving — for €410.

I made an excuse and left but returned 10 minutes later hoping to do better. I told the assistant my mother had seen the watch online and agreed it was the perfect gift but not to bother with engraving. I still wanted the same discount, however: she gave in, offering me the watch for €390, a saving of €45.

Any smugness soon disappeared when the same watch was discovered in Clerys on O’Connell Street selling for €395. Time to recount our well-rehearsed story. The smartly dressed assistant smiled and said I could have the watch for €355, a saving of €40.

In fact, jewellery proved to be the one area where discounts were easily attainable. In Weir & Sons in the Ilac Centre it was possible to secure a 10% discount without having to resort to any made-up stories. But the invention of four siblings clubbing together to buy a present for our mother’s 70th birthday resulted in €70 being knocked off a €1,420 Gucci white-gold horsebit necklace.

If my experience is anything to go by, then anybody buying electrical goods must ask for a discount. But notwithstanding my experience in the Sony store, most camera retailers refused to entertain deductions, claiming their profit margins were already too tight.

The hardest nuts to crack were clothes stores. There was nothing on offer from four different shoe stores while an assistant in one shop just didn’t appear to understand the concept of a discount.

We had better luck in Timberland which was willing to offer 10% off a pair of children’s size 8 boots for an imaginary nephew. The same invented child bagged a €25 saving on a baby car seat at Mothercare.

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