For Another Euro More: Prices that take you for a ride

You may or may not appreciate what a grind it can be, hacking around hotels and other places - on a daily basis - distributing copies of HOT! Especially when it is as warm as it is now. Not that I complain. That's how it is. And it can also be highly illuminating. Stop and talk to the receptionists about how things are. Many an insight is to be gained from a few moments snatched with hotel personnel.

But when it is hot, one has to either take oneself off to a bar for some liquid or - on the hoof - get some from a shop. And so it was, at the peak of yesterday's afternoon temperature, I went into a tourist supermarket. Water, no. It's always overpriced in these places, and it's not what you really need, which is either fruit juice or a sports drink - water's fine, but you've got to get your vitamins, minerals and salts as well. So I choose a sports drink. There is a sticker on the cool cabinet - across the row of drinks from which I take an orange half litre. 1.95. The "botellas" (bottles) are 1.95. Ok, bit over the top, but I can live with it. What I can't live with is when I go to the checkout and the girl says 2.95. No it's not, says I (and this is all in Spanish). It's 1.95. That's what the sticker says. I pick up the bottle and point out the 500ml - half litre, and then I head over to the cabinet, and she comes with me. She removes the sticker. Rumbled.

The supermarket has encountered someone who isn't a tourist, who speaks Spanish, who's damned if he's going to pay a euro more than what is clearly stated - or was, before the sticker was peeled off. I pay 1.95. The girl and her companion look somewhat pissed off. It's not really their problem; they only work there. But they have to deal with it. Deal with a little example of attempting to rip-off.

When we get all the Mallorca's expensive anecdotes, some are related to the cost of items in tourist supermarkets. I have some sympathy. They try it on. And it gives a bad impression. Like, for example, this nonsense with upping the price of newspapers - a twenty cents here, a thirty cents there. It's wrong. Its legality is also a moot point. But the deal is that the supermarket, or whatever, assumes you'll be prepared to swallow the added tariff because it's convenient to do so. Oh, that the practice were confined only to the less-than-official outlets. Because it isn't. I was going to buy a copy of "The Observer" last Sunday from a "tabacs" (which double as official outlets for newspapers). Not when I saw the sticker with the added cents. They're having a laugh. One of these days I will look to buy a paper with its inflated price and insist on paying the price quoted - in print - on the paper. Again, it won't be the problem of the shop assistant, and he or she shouldn't be placed in the position of having to be confronted by a stroppy non-tourist, such as myself. But it's poor. It niggles. Niggles tourists and niggles me. They should stop trying to make fools out of people, which is why I do - sometimes - have every sympathy with those who complain about prices.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.