The words discount, half-price and final sale can get you running to the mall or reaching for your credit card. But in her book called Cheap, author Ellen Ruppel Shell explains why bargain-hunting may come at a high price.
"In a market awash in increasingly similar — even identical — goods," Shell writes, "price is the ultimate arbiter; the lover, the better." But the inexpensive Target underwear and the bootleg watches from street vendors quickly show their true value, and their production comes at a societal cost.
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