In Marrakech, people will throw monkeys at you, expecting your amazed friend to take a picture to capture the hilarity of a monkey running around on your head. Then he'll charge you a lot of money for taking a picture.
People will also offer anything and everything to you for free. The important thing to remember is that they are lying. Whatever they say is free is not free at all. Once, in Marrakech, we all sat down for dinner and were promised free tea. I didn't believe them and never ordered any tea, but some people did and bought it. We continuously asked them if it was free and they said yes (repeatedly). In the end they gave us the tea for free but charged us 5 dirhams for each piece of bread (it turned out to be the exact same price as the tea would have cost)
Sometimes when people rip you off they're really, really obvious about it. They're horrible actors. I asked how much some figs cost (they should be about ~30dirhams/kilo). The guy looked at me, looked at the (white) guy next to me, realized we were foreigners (my accent didn't help) and thought a second before saying "150 dirham" (in french). Generally people don't rip you off too much with food; prices are often posted and are just a flat rate. But I could literally see him thinking "how much can I rip this sucker off," he wasn't good at it at all. And this happens a lot, where people will hesitate to tell you how much it costs, look you over, and then name some really high price.
Lastly there was a restaurant in Fes, the owner of which was hilarious. Whenever we walked by he would come after us and tell us that there was a student discount and we could get this meal for 40DH instead of the sticker price of 70. I am about 99% sure that nobody has ever payed 70DH for this meal, he just tells everyone that there's a student price, even people who are clearly not in school. Also he always tells us we can see Mars from his terrace. "Come eat here to see Mars!"
People will also offer anything and everything to you for free. The important thing to remember is that they are lying. Whatever they say is free is not free at all. Once, in Marrakech, we all sat down for dinner and were promised free tea. I didn't believe them and never ordered any tea, but some people did and bought it. We continuously asked them if it was free and they said yes (repeatedly). In the end they gave us the tea for free but charged us 5 dirhams for each piece of bread (it turned out to be the exact same price as the tea would have cost)
Sometimes when people rip you off they're really, really obvious about it. They're horrible actors. I asked how much some figs cost (they should be about ~30dirhams/kilo). The guy looked at me, looked at the (white) guy next to me, realized we were foreigners (my accent didn't help) and thought a second before saying "150 dirham" (in french). Generally people don't rip you off too much with food; prices are often posted and are just a flat rate. But I could literally see him thinking "how much can I rip this sucker off," he wasn't good at it at all. And this happens a lot, where people will hesitate to tell you how much it costs, look you over, and then name some really high price.
Lastly there was a restaurant in Fes, the owner of which was hilarious. Whenever we walked by he would come after us and tell us that there was a student discount and we could get this meal for 40DH instead of the sticker price of 70. I am about 99% sure that nobody has ever payed 70DH for this meal, he just tells everyone that there's a student price, even people who are clearly not in school. Also he always tells us we can see Mars from his terrace. "Come eat here to see Mars!"
Do people in general bargain before buying?
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of unclear. The simple answer is "yes" but there are exceptions of things you're not supposed to bargain for and I think staple food items are one of them (e.g. dried fruit, vegetables, grains, etc). But I'm not 100% sure about when bargaining is expected or accepted.
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