{"id":3173,"date":"2008-01-22T01:00:01","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T01:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3173"},"modified":"2008-01-22T01:00:01","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T01:00:01","slug":"for_champions_o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3173","title":{"rendered":"For Champions of Haggling, No Price Tag Is Sacred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alina Tugend<\/a>: <\/p>\n

MY husband and I hate haggling. In markets in Istanbul or Jerusalem or Florence, where arguing over price is a high art \u2014 and after we have given it our best shot \u2014 we always feel we have walked away paying twice as much as the seller expected.
\nAnd that they are secretly, or not so secretly, laughing at us.
\nIn this country where you are expected to negotiate over cars and houses, we manage quite well, but do not find it fun or exciting. We just want it to be over.
\nBut I have friends who always seem able to strike a great deal in unexpected areas. My friend Lou negotiates a lower price on the oil delivered to his house. On his credit card rates. On hotel rooms. At the gym.
\n\u201cPeople are afraid to ask, afraid they\u2019ll be embarrassed or afraid they won\u2019t get the right answer,\u201d he said. \u201cSeventy-five percent of the time, I get the right answer.\u201d
\nLou and other successful hagglers are not worried about appearing cheap, as I am, or being turned down, because they start with a different attitude.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alina Tugend<\/a>: <\/p>\n

MY husband and I hate haggling. In markets in Istanbul or Jerusalem or Florence, where arguing over price is a high art \u2014 and after we have given it our best shot \u2014 we always feel we have walked away paying twice as much as the seller expected.
\nAnd that they are secretly, or not so secretly, laughing at us.
\nIn this country where you are expected to negotiate over cars and houses, we manage quite well, but do not find it fun or exciting. We just want it to be over.
\nBut I have friends who always seem able to strike a great deal in unexpected areas. My friend Lou negotiates a lower price on the oil delivered to his house. On his credit card rates. On hotel rooms. At the gym.
\n\u201cPeople are afraid to ask, afraid they\u2019ll be embarrassed or afraid they won\u2019t get the right answer,\u201d he said. \u201cSeventy-five percent of the time, I get the right answer.\u201d
\nLou and other successful hagglers are not worried about appearing cheap, as I am, or being turned down, because they start with a different attitude.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}