I wish I could say that its uncommon for foreigners or tourists to be charged differently. All over the world people seem willing to take advantage of the newcomer, to see what boundary can be pushed, but never have we seen a tourist price so institutionalized.
Faranji pricing in Ethiopia is a way of business. While gringo pricing is common in Latin America, is generally understood that its a “starting” price from which to negotiate and almost no one will admit to a separate gringo price. That is just not the case in Ethiopia and often we’ve been presented with a bill that is different from what we expected. “Faranji price,” we’re told, as a matter of fact, expecting us to understand. Nothing frustrates us more than being charged differently because of the color of our skin or our nationality.
Recently we sat at an Internet cafe for a few hours, trying to catch up with some online administration. Although the price was set at .35Birr cents (about $0.05) per minute, when it came time to pay, we were charged .75 Birr cents a minute. Protesting the increase, we were told simply that .75 was the faranji price. Refusing to pay what we saw as an unfair increase due to our skin color, we argued that the practice of faranji pricing was unfair. “That’s how it is,” the cafe attendant said. In the end we refused to back down and after extensive discussions paid original rate.
What is right though? Should we act on a ‘when in Rome’ mentality and pay what is asked of us for should we stand up for the principles of equality and fair play that we grew up in and enforce in our own country? We’ll posted a new poll to this affect and are curious about your thoughts.
Tom your CS from Karlsruhe says
Well, the Ethiopians probably believe that “faranji” price IS fair, so there is no way to enforce own standards without arguing at the end. I would probably ask for BOTH “normal” and “faranji” price BEFORE service and refuse to pay the latter one. Maybe there is some room for negotiations then 🙂
Dad McKnight says
Good advice from Tom… if you know that “ Faranji Pricing” is common place get the cost up front and then start your negotiations before service is rendered. If the price is not right you move on. You don’t want to have a business owner or one of his staff mistake assertiveness for aggression.
Jillian says
We learned along time ago to always ask the price before accepting services, but here it’s universally accepted that faranji’s should pay more. Never come across this before and frankly its annoying and frustrating. Doesn’t exactly make you feel welcome.
Mark Kennet says
On the one hand, let me say unequivocally, yes, it is unfair. On the other, well…when you figure that the difference in price probably means almost nothing to you but that it might actually reverberate with some positive effects in a very poor country, it may still be unfair but perhaps we faranjis, or gringos, or whatever, should just live with it and thank our good fortune that we have so much more wealth to return to.
I know many people who disagree. One way I can rationalize my point of view is to consider the value of time argument. Generally, as I said, the price differences are small in absolute value (and I am more sympathetic to the other point of view when price differences are large). When I figure the hourly rate I charge even to my lowest-paying client (e.g., a government), I figure that my time is worth about $3 per minute. If I spend a minute arguing, then the item costs $3 more anyway. So unless there is a chance that by arguing I can lower the cost by more than the amount the time spent arguing is worth, I don’t bother.
Against this argument one can inveigh principle, and also the fact that in some cultures, bargaining is a form of entertainment, and by not arguing you are depriving them of the opportunity to be so entertained. Not to be culture-centric, but I don’t share that entertainment preference – I detest arguing and haggling. But I can see how others might enjoy it.
Danny says
@ Mark –
I don’t know what it is but something in me, when this sort of thing happens, takes away a lot of the rationality you just talked about. We’re quite used to people trying to rip us off as foreigners but where Ethiopia differed was that a second set of prices was institutionalized based on skin color.
I agree, in most cases it wasn’t worth our time to argue and had the higher price been the price for everyone I generally would have paid it w/o a second guess….but…..the way in which it was demanded that we pay more was such an insult to my sense of equality that I just couldn’t deal with it…
But, to take it back to econ….I’m unemployed right now so my time is worth relatively little when compared to the few minutes of arguing I had to endure 😉