I just returned from Marrakech, Morocco where I attended a conference. On the last day, I went to the markets in with some friends to buy souvenirs and see more of the town. Overall, I found everything “fully valued” and there were few bargains. The shopping trip quickly turned into a negotiation workshop. Things started out very high, and you had to negotiate pretty hard just to get things back to any reasonable level. We learned about special “Americanâ€? pricing in the shops. At one point, one of my friends was haggling pretty hard with a vendor over an item. The seller was getting frustrated and he said to me friend, “I don’t understand why you bargain so hard! You are an American. You have all the oil of Iraq, and all the money in the world…!â€? Then the other salesmen in the shop started laughing.

That comment and the reaction of the others were very telling of how Moroccans see Americans for sure, and the impacts of the Iraq war. Be that as it may, it is true that Moroccans are poorer overall than Americans, so I was left pondering this question, among other things, is there any difference in negotiating with someone who is significantly poorer versus someone who is closer to your economic level? How much do you haggle with poorer people?