The time when tempers flare and shoppers get fleeced

Dec 14, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The year is fast coming to a close, but for all the days that passed, precious little has changed. In fact, I get the impression that things are worse. People are more tense and less caring. At the same time there are those who insist on ensuring that some of the things that made for a less comfortable life remain in place.
I was in Mexico City recently and I was amazed that in a place where there are reported kidnappings and killings, people were going about their business as though nothing was happening. Perhaps it was the police presence. There were the police just about everywhere, directing traffic, patrolling and ensuring that the calm was kept.
I did not see heavily-armed patrols as I would in Guyana with a population of a little less than 1/28th of Mexico City (21.2 million) but I did see pairs of police ranks walking the beat. I also saw numerous police vehicles driving around. It was as if at the first sign of trouble there would be hundreds of police.
Of course there were people fleecing the unwary visitor, but not enough to cause worry. For example, there was a group of young people selling colognes. The cologne was nothing but water and some fragrance that disappeared almost as soon as it was applied.
The Mexico peso was the currency of choice as could be expected, but the people were offering an exchange rate that was less than the commercial banks. However, people were not selling currency; they were selling a service, and if one wanted to pay in dollars then the lower exchange would apply.
My mind flashed back to Guyana, where people would be standing with large sums of cash in their hands and offering to change dollars for the local currency, giving more than the commercial banks. The difference here was that amidst the local currency is counterfeit money.
The presence of counterfeit money has spawned a new industry. Just about every business house of some sort now has a gadget that scans money. I went to purchase a meal from a relatively small eating house. When I paid, the cashier slipped my money under a gadget that emitted a green light.
I got to wondering at the source of the counterfeit money. The simple photocopier was not enough to fashion the kind of money that would escape detection, so I concluded that somewhere there was a factory for counterfeit money.
At the commercial bank I visit, one of the cashiers said that they regularly get counterfeit money, but because of technology they are able to detect the fake. For all this, though, I do not hear of the prosecutions for possession of counterfeit money. It must be that the cashier simply gives the fake money back to the person and with a smile, informs the person that it is ‘fake.’
It is the same with certain products. Guyana is a poor country with people who get some help from relatives overseas. The extra money motivates the shopper to seek out bargains and there is no place that offers bargains like the Chinese stores.
A few years ago the Guyana Power and Light issued warnings about certain decorations that have the tendency to burst into flames and jeopardise the house. One would have thought that people would take notice, but the drive to get more for less is so overwhelming that warnings are heeded.
To compound the issue are those stores that offer the shopper a lower price if the shopper would forego a receipt. The excuse is that without a receipt there is no need to pay the value added tax. The truth is that people jump at the offer.
One woman did just that and she is in tears. She visited a city store and bought a television, as she said, a flat screen. She forked out $90,000 and was told that she was saving $6,000. Had she done the Maths she would have realized that the VAT would have been $14,400. Anyhow, in her book, every cent counted, so she went for the offer.
Two weeks later the television conked out, so she took it back to the store. All that happened about seven months ago. Today she is still without her repaired TV and she seems to have no way of getting it back or her money. She went to the police only to be told that without a receipt she had no case; that the police could do nothing.
I am sure that there have been many like her and before the season is over there will be many others. There will also be places of entertainment where the waiters would seek to make hay while the proverbial sun shines. Bills would be inflated and because we are a trusting people we would blink, then pay.
It is not that this trend is unique to Guyana. I was in New York with Glenn Lall when we went to a bar. We had a few drinks and bought some for friends, one of whom actually paid the bill. However, the enterprising waiter also took a bill to Glenn, who was about to pay when his friend asked him why he thought that he should pay since the bill was already paid.
Imagine the look on the waiter’s face. Worse, you should have heard the apology. If you know Glenn you would know that such things will not pass, so he went to the proprietor. The waiter and the barman were in cahoots; there were two bills, one for the business and the other for the customer.
I suppose the same thing is happening in Guyana. However, such things come with the season when businesses record about fifty per cent of their profits.
As I always say, one can never be too careful. And while we are at it, we should avoid confrontation at this time. Tempers seem to be getting shorter and violence is becoming the order of the day.

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