Why do ONLY foreigners get special promotion?

[thequaife]

As long as you are a foreigner in any countries, you are automatically become and easy target for the locals. At the end of the day,it is all about business. So please... NEGOTIATE. After all the locals need to earn money.
Try Italy for christ sake... it is the real special price for any foreigner.

[bruce99218]

This is funny. Foreigners probably do have bigger heads. But in my case I have a LOT less hair. I don't think I've ever seen a balding Thai.

[Mickyfin]

Special price for foriegners,well if u can't see the scam you don't know too much about Thailand,personally I think your better off staying away from anything expat,when I return to stay in thung kru,I don't get any special prices for foreigners,most people are great.

[Xavier Romero-Frias]

I've never been completely sure about why exactly this "special" treatment exists.
I''ve never found it in Indonesia - for example - where I used to travel a lot.
Nor in Malaysia. Nor Singapore. Nor in Cambodia, Laos.

I don't believe what you say. Maybe you didn't stay long enough in those countries. In Sri lanka, Maldives, India, the situation is identical as with the Thai barbers, whether it is paying for the entrance at Colombo Zoo, paying a dentist bill in Male' or a taxi in India. It does not matter if you are a long-time resident or not.
Steve, an American friend of mine, called it "skin tax". But I think it has less to do with racism as such than with assumptions, the main assumption being "Foreigners are affluent."

[newcan41]

Yes I got some of this "special" treatment today myself. While waiting in line at Mcdonalds the young person at the counter took 3 other customers from a different line before me and my little boy. The first time I thought it was just simply a rude custemer jumping the que. The second time I began to remember this happening in places like UAE, where Emirate Nationals jump the que ahead of "visitors". THe 3rd time I simply had enough and spoke to the manager. When the employee was questioned, he simply used the escuse that he did not speak english.....gee....what about these fancy little picture boards they use at fast food joints? And how hard is it to understand Big Mac for pete sakes?? YOu are working at McDonalds afterall!!

Ya....we get "special" treatment alright!!!

[DKO]

Regretfully a favourite trick gaining ground where I live with clothes stalls in one new mall (no doubt occurs everywhere) is when my wife asks how much an item of clothing is before she asks if she can try it on.

She is told the price and if acceptable asks to try it on. Increasingly, she is then told "You can buy but you are not allowed to try it on first". Crazy this, as we immediately assume they know something poor about the fit (whether that is the case or not)

The other thing we are NOW finding which we BOTH hate is;

AFTER trying on an item and offering the asking price, we are told that is the wholesale price and only applicable if 2 of the same item are bought by us. When my wife says she only wants one, the original asking price is hiked some 30% to 50% and the sales assistant will not budge from that new price. I have no idea if there is a "husband is Farang" factor here and they think we will accept the hike, or whether it is a deceptive tactic for all customers (be they Thai, Farang or foreign) for getting the customer "sold" on the item and then change the price.

My wife hates this, as much as do I, and no matter how much she likes the item she ALWAYS, off her own bat without even telling me what has happened, walks away glaring contemptuously at the assistant as she does.

I have suggested to my wife that when we are at the new mall that as this deceptive practise is getting more common, my wife asks the price for ONE item in future before she tries it on. The sales assistants may still lie (///// is what they are doing with their deliberate deception) but it also lets them know "we know the game and we ain't playing". The honest stall keepers will not be offended as I am sure they know the games some others are now playing.

Hopefully, those who think they are clever with this sales tactic will lose future customers and fail. Customers are bound to increasingly aware of which stalls uses these dubious sales methods as as there are now some 300 stalls and more being added all the time there are "plenty more fish in the sea".

[fast eddy]

Wow! What a great topic
Yes VP welcome to Thailand - the land of 'special everything for non-thais'. The special price for the houses in a 'forgein zone will be hugely inflated as is the price for entering the Chiang Mai Safari Park, National Parks and Temples when charging a non-Thai!
I too met the special price for foreigners a couple of weeks ago. I was informed that the electric sign I errected would incurr tax as would a sign in Thai. However, my sign would be taxed at four times the rate of a Thai sign as it is written in English!
The trick to do is to involve yourself in transactions as a seller rather than always the victim (buyer). That way you can pass on the special prices you pay to your Thai customers. Make Budhism work for you - they say its a circle so just keep passing the special prices back to the natives when you can - rule no.1 'there is always a victim. Rule no. 2 'don't be it!'

The next thing to do is to shop around! Best to use a Thai friend to help you to 'negotiate' the price. When this is settled then you step in and pay-up - just enjoy the 'great wailing and nashing of teeth' when the vendor realises they missed out on yet another 'special price'!

Having said all of that, there are areas of Thailand where they don't price discriminate and treat non-thais as the would thais. Try to settle in one of these places rather than the big cities where you will probably spend most of your times as a 'special price' victim.

Finally, to 'watcher'. You can't be serious! Japan is an extremely rascist country I lived there full time for five years and my brother over 20 years and friends are getting up to their quarter century of living there full time! The word you need to use is xenophopic with a capital X! You must have seen the big black buses crawling around the center of Tokyo! These huge buses are draped in the rising sun flag with blacked out windows and manned by extreme right wing Japs dressed in black - belowing through loud speakers that all Japan's woes are caused by foreigners and that they should all be kicked out!

Somebody pointed out that Thailand is not really a budhist country and is basically animist with a smatering of hindu. I would agree with this - you only have to look at the rush to buy into the special medalions produced in Nakon Sii Thammarat last year to understand how supersticious the Thais are. They even get their lottery numbers from looking at trees and (get this) pigs! I have no problem with this whatsoever as the cub Kao lady (the mobile shop) in my village in Nonthaburi won the lottery twice by such non-scientific methods. What was annoying was that she bought a ticket numbered the same as my wife's motorbike registration (which she had seen in her dream the night before) and won. Not only that but a few months later she saw the registration of my pick-up truck in a dream and won again!!

Thais do sometimes suffer from the 'special prices' though. An example that springs to mind is the special prices promted by some five star hotels and resorts which have deals for tourists but not for the natives. I have read of this a number of times over the years but having said that they get their own back by charging higher prices at other resorts for tourists when compared to natives - see! You've got to get yourself into the trading chain somehow or you will forever end up the victim For as a Jewish friend of mine once said, 'Why did God invent Gentiles? Someone has to pay retail!!'

cheers
Fast Eddy

[sheldon_collier]

This unfair treatment does indeed work both ways. My Thai girlfriend and I were in Krabi, actually Ao Nang during a holiday last summer when her grandmother died. We could not get a bus back to Bangkok because all the private bus companies down there did not accept Thai people. All the public buses and trains were full, so I ended up having to pay for a very expensive flight back home. It seems like these are things Thai people should be protesting about rather than the pointless back-and-forth, economy-damaging rallies by the UDD and PAD.

Also, while in Chiag Mai, she was not allowed to rent a motorcycle form many rental shops. Some allowed this, but with a 5000 baht deposit. It's no problem for Farang to rent them without a deposit.

[fast eddy]

Arrh, sheldon, I think there may be some issues as to why Thais were not allowed to buy tickets on the bus - passenger safety initially springs to mind - what with the drugging and gassing of buses passengers who wake to find all of their valueables missing. Thailand has been flying above the radar for so long now that most people are aware of the safety issues and take steps to minimise the risk such as by taking buses which exclude Thais.

I think the same goes for motorcycles. Thais are not very good at taking care of property that belongs to others - again they just aren't suffisticated enough to comprehend that people may wish to look after their posessions - again its just their way and Thais understand this. Therefore, instead of risking a confrontation with a thai who returns a trashed or marked up motorcycle and refuses to pay for the cost of repairs it is much easier and safer to say - 'Sorry, we only rent to non-thais'.

Both cases the employer/owner is Thai making judgements on their own people - there is no substitute for experience I am afraid

cheers

Fast Eddy

[R. Scott]

200 baht, or around $6 dollars for a haircut sounds like a decent deal to me. I am from NY and you can't get someone who has any idea at all how to cut hair to touch your head for less than $30.00. Its not like your barber is going home to a luxury condo. I can understand a barber wanting to charge foreigners 200 baht for a haircut. Its still an excellent deal for foreigners and they know it. I don't mind paying a little extra to the guy who is going home to a very modest home and barely makes ends meet. Why shouldn't it be mutually beneficial? Were talking 50 baht here.