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It's an accepted part of Western society that you don't argue over money. You don't want to make a big deal of it. You don't argue with your friends about money, you don't argue with your family about money, and you definitely don't argue with strangers about money.
So maybe that's why the art of haggling is one that tends to freak us out a little bit. Westerners don't do haggling. For most of us in our everyday lives, buying something involves being given the price, and deciding whether you want to pay it or not. Transaction complete. So to suddenly have to pit your wits against the person selling you something, to have to break them down sometimes over several hours to eventually get to a price you're both happy with??? That's a little weird. In some places though, it's also very necessary.
On this episode of Flight of Fancy, host Ben Groundwater is joined by fellow writers Ute Junker and Michael Gebicki to talk about haggling: the art of arguing over prices, of making deals, of paying the amount that you really desire. Does the whole process make you uncomfortable? How do you know you're getting the right price? And even more importantly: how do you know you're even supposed to be haggling in the first place?
