Bargaining is not common in the United States, but sales are. Stores offer discounts on their merchandise during sales. They hope to bring in more customers, and clear out merchandise that hasn't sold by offering discounts. People watch for sales carefully to save money on things they need. Every store will offer a discount on its merchandise at some point, so it's just a matter of waiting until the item you want goes on sale. The Going-Out-of-Business Sale is, perhaps, the sale where one can get the biggest discounts. When stores are closing for good, they try to get any price for their merchandise. This means you can often get discounts of up to 90%.