Dual Pricing Is A Headache And Rip Off

Jane Titone is haggling with a shop-owner on Hang Bac street in Hanoi for a T-shirt with the words ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ on the front. A classic souvenir found all along the tourist trail in Vietnam.

Jane’s happy with a price of $10 as that’s half the initial price quoted by the shop owner. With a bit more haggling or savvy, Jane probably could have got it for $5 to $7 at the same shop, while in Dong Xuan market you could find one for $3.
While tourists might be disgruntled to find out later they paid over the odds, just like countless tourist destinations around the world, this is simply called getting caught in the tourist trap.
Whether you’re on Hang Bac street, Oxford street in London or Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, the souvenir seller can always take advantage of the tourists’ lack of local know-how.
The problem for many long-term expats is that while they have worked out the local prices, their foreign face remains the same, and so shopkeepers and hawkers still try to charge them the just-got-off-the-boat-price.
“I’ve lived in Hanoi long enough to be aware of being overcharged. A Vietnamese friend gives me a tip: always knock 50 per cent off,” says Han Ji Woo, a Korean teacher living in Hanoi. “Sometimes, it works, other times it doesn’t. In certain shops, mostly souvenir shops for tourists, they insist on high prices. Luckily, I’m not interested in local souvenirs anymore!”
Officials from the Department of Commerce in Hanoi agree that the current price scale applied to tourists is confusing and irrational, but controlling the prices in souvenir shops or for hawkers is impossible.
“A higher price for tourists is a matter of course. You would find it in any country, not just in Vietnam,” says Van, who owns a silk shop on Hang Gai street. “Each shop sets their own price, it’s their business. As long as they pay taxes and do not sell forbidden goods, it is not a problem.”
According to Nguyen Huu Viet, an official from the Tourism Department of Hanoi, overcharging foreign tourists is not necessarily a kind of fraud, but part of the “culture”.
One shopkeeper I speak to doesn’t see jacking up the price as trying to fool the customer, but instead describes people who pay a high price as ‘generous’.
“American and Russian tourists are very generous but the most generous customers are from Japan, they hardly bargain at all,” says Thu Huong, who works in a small souvenir shop in the Old Quarter. “Even with a price 10-times the going rate, a Japanese customer might consider it cheap. But Italian or German tourists would just take a look and smile.”
In Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Thanh market is often described as the pride of the city in guidebooks – a place where every visitor should go to enjoy local food, shop for souvenirs and savour the bustling atmosphere.
But locals now complain that Ben Thanh is no longer a market for them, as the shop owners are more interested in the potentially lucrative trade with souvenir-seeking tourists.
The more naive of these tourists are called “ga beo” (fatty chicken), a slang term for those that jump at the price of $100 for a fake $10-Rolex watch from China or $40 for a $5-dollar-string of artificial pearls.
There is also a more institutionalized dual-pricing culture, which still exists in Vietnam. For a seat on the hydrofoil from Hai Phong to Cat Ba island, a ticket costs Vietnamese people VND80,000, while a foreigner has to pay VND100,000. A small margin that won’t break the bank, but it still irks foreigners who frequent the island.
Entry to the Cu Chi tunnels sets a foreigner back VND70,000 ($4.5) but Vietnamese tourists only have to pay VND15,000 ($1).
“I don’t know how to explain when the foreigners ask me about this,” admits Duc, a tour guide who regular takes groups to the tunnels.
“To be honest I don’t really care about the souvenir shops or fruit sellers trying to get a bit more cash out of a foreigner, haggling for goods is part of the game,” says Daniel Lewenstein, an American lawyer living in Vietnam on and off for 10 years. “But it’s really annoying when there’s a set price and people try to chance their arm anyway, like the last time I arrived at Noi Bai airport the taxi driver tried to charge me VND280,000 for a trip to town even though it said VND150,000 on the sign!”
Aware that dual pricing might potentially inhibit foreigner’s fondness for travelling in Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines and Vietnam Railways ended this pricing policy in early 2002. However the airport shuttle bus from Noi Bai to Vietnam Airlines head office on Quang Trung street in Hanoi retained dual pricing thereafter with a price of $2 for foreigners and VND22,000 for Vietnamese. A marginal difference that seems utterly pointless in this day and age.