Since I am involved in studies and trainings on negotiations I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. There are cultures and countries where people negotiate everywhere, where negotiation is an essence of social life and where negotiation is not just an art but the Art. I call these cultures as bargaining cultures. Bazaar is the centre of the bargaining culture. People respect masters of bargaining and these masters have a high social status. We can think about many Eastern countries as bargaining cultures.
There are other cultures where people do not tend to bargain everywhere. Of course people do a lot of negotiations in their everyday and business life even in such non-bargaining cultures. However, there the bazaar is not a centre of social life, and in large shopping malls buyers and sellers do not bargain. We may say that many Western countries have non-bargaining cultures.
Paradoxically, most current negotiation studies (including studies of bargaining) are done in non-bargaining cultures. Interestingly, some people like to bargain but others prefer to study bargaining.
Alisher Faizullaev 