I think the same is true of some parts of american life, which in general is pretty weak on consumer protections. For instance there’s a huge overhead of people scrutinising the fine print of their cellphone contracts for all the extra charges, or more likely, avoiding this by guestimating these on past experience, which is a similar waste. You shouldn’t have to be an expert in all that, they should just print one big price and be done. Ditto restaurants and taxis and sales tax.

To use everyone’s favourite example on the net, what’s making Apple rich is (partly) offering fewer choices, and splitting the cost of your mental overhead in figuring out which Dell to buy with you.

I think the same is true of some parts of american life, which in general is pretty weak on consumer protections. For instance there’s a huge overhead of people scrutinising the fine print of their cellphone contracts for all the extra charges, or more likely, avoiding this by guestimating these on past experience, which is a similar waste. You shouldn’t have to be an expert in all that, they should just print one big price and be done. Ditto restaurants and taxis and sales tax.

To use everyone’s favourite example on the net, what’s making Apple rich is (partly) offering fewer choices, and splitting the cost of your mental overhead in figuring out which Dell to buy with you.

Imagine that the silver bracelet were sold at a fixed price. How would that help you decide if it were fake or not? Why is charging a fixed $10 for a fake silver item different from asking $20 for the same fake and giving you the option of bargaining down to $10 or $5?

And assume that you buy the bracelet for $10 and you find out that it’s sold elsewhere in Turkey for $5 but sold in the US for $20. Aren’t you better off having paid $10 for it than not buying at all?

Imagine that the silver bracelet were sold at a fixed price. How would that help you decide if it were fake or not? Why is charging a fixed $10 for a fake silver item different from asking $20 for the same fake and giving you the option of bargaining down to $10 or $5?

And assume that you buy the bracelet for $10 and you find out that it’s sold elsewhere in Turkey for $5 but sold in the US for $20. Aren’t you better off having paid $10 for it than not buying at all?

Will Wilkinson reports that he didn’t buy as many things as he would have liked on a recent trip to Turkey because the cultural proclivity to haggling left him cold. He suspects this experience is generalizable:
[P]robably hundreds of my dollars …

In addition to the trust issue, I also hate the haggling part per se. I simply feel it isn’t fair and my enjoyment is diminished if I pay a price that is higher than other people pay. I may still have a consumer surplus, but I also have a big sign on my back that says, “Sucker.” Some (such as McArdle) might call that irrational, but when you are a walking wallet in a poor country, that “sucker” sign stops you from buying their trinkets.