Local: This sucker here, we can make alot of money ripping her off!
Sucker: Did I mention that I understand your language and I have no intention of paying you triple the going rate for a 20 minute car ride to my hotel?
Local: Only $10 and I can drive you the 5 blocks to your destination. Easy money when it comes to these foreigners.
Sucker: What a minute. I can see my hotel from here and do I look like I’m carrying a large bag of money on my back?
Local: You want your shoes shine? It’s only $2.
Sucker: Great price! However, I’m wearing tennis shoes! You want to shine my walking/running trainers?
Local: I need to charge you tax and VAT on top of the taxes that you will be paying. We agreed to this in the email.
Sucker: Your email said that this was the total amount, including taxes and VAT. Do you know what included mean? It means it’s already calculated.
Local: Oh, well I will have to get back with you on that after I look up this word “included.”
Local: Yes, we have a restaurant on the top level, but we don’t serve food up there.
Sucker: Then that’s not a restaurant, is it? You just have tables up there for what reason?
Local: Just tables so you can sit, eventhough our website saids we have two restaurants. Oh and there’s no light up there either so I wouldn’t go up there after dark.
In all honesty, we have better sense than to expect equal services and quality in a less than developed country, but it’s quite frustrating when you are subjected to such a moronic double standard. It’s discrimination in the most demeaning and asinine fashion. Just because we are in another country does not mean we want to indulge you in ripping us off. The obvious reason given is that everyone is just trying to make a living, but my response to you is there’s nothing wrong with making an honest living. Most of us are more than happy to pay up to 40% over the going rate when we travel to modest countries, it’s inherent in being a tourist, but double or triple is absolutely unacceptable.
Haggling has become a mechanism for deceit and a vehicle for dishonesty. There’s no integrity in haggling as one party always starts extremely high and the other party starts too low. The party that wants to sell the service or merchandise knows that it’s not the fair rate and the party that is considering purchasing is uncertain about whether it’s the fair rate. Ultimately, the bargaining party walks away feeling like they negotiated a fair price through the “art” of haggling, when in essence they are paying the fair market value, but only after going through the process of negotiating it. The item is priced based on its value to the purchaser, not it’s actual value based on the economic model of supply and demand. It’s an unfair, unscrupulous system that penalizes the purchaser.
This is what some of us end up doing. We buy substandard souvenirs at inflated prices at the airport, before we catch our flight home. At least we KNOW they are being honest about ripping us off. We both enter the arrangement with the same understanding, seller doesn’t pretend to sell us anything at a discount and purchaser knows that’s the price you pay when you buy tourist items at the airport. Both parties know it’s inflated, unfair, and lining the pockets of big business, but at least we don’t have to haggle.