Do you haggle?

More and more I've been reading articles about haggling coming into fashion again during the recession.

My dad used to haggle on everything, much to our collective family embarrassment, so I avoided it until a few years ago. When Joelle and I traveled around Southeast Asia, every day was about negotiating something or other. During our visits to North Africa and the Middle East it was a must or else we would end up paying more than what we would pay in Paris. On more than one occasion I was pushed to the limit with carpet sellers and others in the souks of the region. I made it my mission to either play the game and not buy or play the game harder than the sellers. In fact it did become fun to a degree though not something I wanted to do every day.

More recently I wanted to purchase a bike and take advantage of the great bike paths of Paris but I didn't want to pay full price. The plan was to visit a shop and test the waters and voila! it worked. After laughing and making a joke about it - keeping the tone light and joking is always important so everyone can save face - the bike shop dealer agreed to knock 10% off. I was happy and he was happy. He asked why I wanted a discount so I said I wanted a recession discount. My own customers beat me up on a daily basis for extra discounts citing the recession so this was my chance to get my own. The owner then talked about how the Americans, Germans and English are too embarrassed haggle but not the Spanish, Italians or French. Must be the Mediterranean culture. What's the worst think that they can say? If he said "no" I would have gone elsewhere and tried again. Even if the second or third place said "no" I probably would end up buying at the last place I visited after trying.

So do you try to haggle? Does it work? If so, what kind of stores or products go for haggling?