ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

There’s a quite tasty, upscale restaurant in a major shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand which presents Westerners with a Thai-language bill, and Thais with an English-language bill, on the theory that the Westerners likely can’t read Thai at all and the Thais likely can’t read English, or do so quite poorly. Of course, there are extra items that the restaurant patrons didn’t actually order or receive added to the bill.

I know this is true because I observed it happening firsthand. When the bill came – in Thai – I handed it to my Thai dining companion, who proceeded to ream out the waiter because of the extra items added to the bill, causing him to lose face and amusing several Thais sitting at nearby tables.

Here’s an article about a similar practice at a Chinese restaurant. In several Asian countries, foreigners pay a significantly higher fee than locals when they visit tourist parks and historic sites which charge for access, attend sporting events, etc. Usually, these dual-pricing schemes are out on the open; there’s no attempt to conceal them.

A few years ago in Saigon, I went to dinner with several Vietnamese colleagues at an outdoor ‘BBQ’ restaurant where one orders things like pork ribs, sliced beef, vegetables, and so forth, and then grills them to one’s own liking right at the table. After we finished eating, the waitress marched right up to me and presented me with the bill – there was no discussion of who should receive the bill, as it was right and obvious to her that the foreigner should pay. The look of consternation on her face when I made a show of patting my pockets and then loudly announced in pidgin Vietnamese that I didn’t have enough money to pay the bill was priceless. My Vietnamese colleagues got a big laugh out of the situation as they graciously paid the bill (we were all on expense accounts and our company ultimately footed the bill, so none of us cared who actually paid it) and told her that next time, she should ask instead of assuming the foreigner would pay.

— Comments —

Aaron S. writes:

I’m writing you from Bangkok, where I got a bit of a chuckle out of your reader’s pricing stories. My Thai wife makes sure we never pay too much, even if it means some rather forceful arguments. (She is atypically forthright for a woman raised in Asia; I like to say euphemistically that she possesses a hypertrophied sense of justice).

While it is not quite true that the assumption here is that the foreigner will pay, it is certainly the case that it is assumed the foreigner has lots of money.

I must object as a matter of broad nationalist principle, however, to the umbrage he seems to be taking at dual pricing schemes for citizen and foreigner when they are stated openly and forthrightly. I’ve often found myself wishing while here that Americans would take similar care for their countrymen. The simple fact of the matter is that in a nation so heavily tourist-dependent, most natives would never get to see national parks, for instance, were one global market price established for such things.

Laura writes:

I agree with you that there is nothing wrong with discriminatory pricing that favors citizens, as long as it is explicit policy.

Anti-Globalist writes:

To clarify, I actually don’t take umbrage at the open dual-pricing schemes for foreigners in Asian countries. As long as the prices are posted, foreigners can decide for themselves whether or not to pay the higher price.

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