Fashion shops in Italy have been reduced to begging customers to come in and haggle over prices.
As the credit crunch puts the squeeze on shoppers, snooty fashion boutiques are desperate to get buyers through the door.
Duilio Brancolini, 41 - who owns one trendy shop in Modena, northern Italy - put a poster in his window begging punters: "Come on in and make a deal."
Amazingly the market-stall tactics have worked and the shop is now full of haggling fashion fans.
"People see the poster, start to laugh and then they come in to bargain," said Brancolini.
