Haggling on holiday, a do or a do not?...
Is it ethical to haggle on holiday?
We love Robert Rowland Smith's 'To be or not to be' column in the Sunday Times Magazine. Each week he serves up a bite-sized solution to a contemporary philosophical conundrum, and last week's was particularly relevant - is it ethical to haggle while on holiday? The received wisdom at present seems to be that haggling is not only correct procedure, but that NOT to haggle is patronising in the extreme. 'When in Rome,' says Rowland Smith, we are encouraged, 'to behave like the natives,' while it also provides 'a frisson of new competence.'
Not to haggle?
Well, that may be true, but RRS and Original Travel disagree with the assessment that haggling should be de rigeur. Of course paying 20 times over the odds for anything is a mistake, but if you just know that rug would look great in the TV room, why not pay the extra tenner? After all, that almost certainly represents a far larger proportion of the shopkeeper's weekly income than yours. Besides, you'll have more time to squeeze in even more shopping or sight-seeing instead of politely sitting there going through the motions. Discuss...
'We're supposed to haggle if we know how to haggle.' - the beard seller from The Life of Brian.