To think that shops charging non-locals higher prices is not on?

[BBInGinDrinking]

We're on a family holiday staying in a rural coastal cottage in the UK and have been doing all our grocery shopping at the local stores in the nearest villages. I discovered on the last visit to a general store in one village that they have two sets of prices - lower ones for locals and higher ones for visitors.

Who knew?! Is this a thing?!

I live in Cornwall and it is definitely not happening in the village where I live.

When we had a shop my Dad would add a rudeness tax to the final total.

A shop in a touristy place probably has high rent/rates and prices will reflect that. Any independent village shop has higher prices than a supermarket due to lack of purchasing power.

So they pass this onto customers. Especially tourists who are a captive market and won’t want to waste their precious holiday time driving x miles to a supermarket. Whereas if the prices are too high the locals will drive x miles to the supermarket.

Six years ago l lived in a tiny village in rural Yorkshire. l used to work at the local pub. Beer was £3 a pint.
l now live in a small town in Yorkshire. Beer at the local here is £2 a pint. l'm sure the village pub charged that much because they had such a limited clientele, and basically there was no other option if you didn't want to drive.

Yes my family don't shop locally anymore. They just can't afford to.

So they pass this onto customers. Especially tourists who are a captive market and won’t want to waste their precious holiday time driving x miles to a supermarket. Whereas if the prices are too high the locals will drive x miles to the supermarket.

This ^ if the prices in the village shop are too high, by all means go to another shop somewhere else. If the visitor is only staying for a weekend though, and they don't know where the nearest supermarket is, they probably won't bother.

I have to shop locally though as I've no other option. It's very jarring to be paying millionaires prices. I'd love a local rate.

Yeah let's "name and shame" a company that rewards its regular customers.

So Mrs Care Worker on holiday on the Dorset Coast pays more than Mr Wealthy Retired Local!?

My DH worked in a pub in the 1980's which was near a racecourse. There was a 2 tier pricing system - one for the locals/regulars and another for other racegoers. So it's not a new concept!

I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more than the locals, but I’d rather it was done by a local loyalty card so they were getting a discount and it was all up front, I can’t srand anything sneaky.

I’ve just come back from France and the very small town I stay in has a LOT of restaurants and I pretty much guarantee the locals are NOT paying those prices, nor at the markets.

I look like a tourist, I’m sure I’m charged like a tourist. I don’t eat out as often as I would if the prices were more reasonable, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

In their case (with me) they’re cutting their nose off to spite their face, but given they’re packed, I think they’re ‘winning’ with their strategy!

Sounds like a locals discount rather than a tourist surcharge to me. Plenty of loyalty discounts all over the place, this is just a little less formal. If the prices are too high you can always shop elsewhere.

Thanks for letting us know

Now we all know to stop off on the way to a rural holidayand do a big shop at Tesco

They used to do this in Bangkok. The smartest one I saw was a cocktail menu that you needed to read with a bit of red or green perspex - one for English and one for Thai. So naturally I would get the English translation then change the perspex to the Thai one and point to that one when ordering.

Guy Richie got in trouble for this with his pub. Def illegal in the UK.

Slightly different but I’m pretty sure that in Orlando the residents get cheapy annual passes to all the parks. I think it’s kind of just a nice perk to acknowledge that yes, even though tourism brings in money to SOME, it also comes with it’s far share of annoyance to locals.

I live in a kind of touristy town although not massively and sometimes it is a pain in the arse. I generally don’t mind as it’s nice that people want to visit, but traffic/parking/finding somewhere to sit etc becomes a bit of a nightmare during tourist season.

I don’t think you should take offence to it! In fact I often whine that locals should be allowed their own road for when we just want to get home from work and not get stuck in a queue with a load of caravans Obviously extreme but just a little perk for those affected by tourism that doent necessarily benefit!

The village shop adding 10p to cornflakes to deter travel and tackle climate change? Really??

If people get sniffy about 10p, how are they going to act when the vast cost of trying to reverse climate change starts bearing down ?

Technically it’s probably a discount for locals, which is perfectly legal...

Would it shock you op that many staff in shops get discounts too?

I can't get wound up about this, a reduced price for loyal customers that sustain the business and then during the boom season non locals pay more

We had this last year on the isle of Mull.
One shop seriously tried to charge foreigners £4.75 for a pack of mcvities chocolate digestives.
We drove the 40 odd miles to Tovermory CO OP instead (prob cost more in petrol) .

Shops can charge people whatever they want.

Plenty of places have local discounts - I'm in the Lake District and locals can get a "mycumbria" card which gives them 10% discount in most shops. I get a locals discount in the cafe I go to most weeks for a coffee and brownie, too.

It sustains them through the off season. Lots of cafes/shops here close throughout January because it's just not viable for them to open everyday. If they know they'll have a steady stream of locals coming through the door, they'll open and can keep people in work.

I don't see a problem. You don't have to buy stuff if you don't want to.

I had an interesting conversation with a bar owner abroad where I regularly visit. He said he staffed up to serve those who stayed on the island. A couple of years ago, day trippers from a nearby larger island started visiting. He told me he charged day trippers more for drinks as he had to get more local staff in between the hours they visited. His reasoning was that it would be unfair to those of us who stayed there (thereby helping the local economy) to increase his prices for all. So he had a three price list. One for locals (because they were there all year when he needed no staff, just him) one for people staying in the island, and one for people staying for three/four hours.

I could see his point.

Wherever it happens is disgraceful

Why is it disgraceful? What's wrong with shops rewarding their loyal customers? It's no different to clubcards or boots advantage cards.

I'm in the Lake District and locals can get a "mycumbria" card which gives them 10% discount in most shops.

I didn't know about this - off to google it now!

It seems short sighted as once people feel they are paying more than necessary they will buy elsewhere or bring stuff with them. You expect this in African markets but not UK shops

But they are tourists, so it's likely to be the only time they shop there anyway. Better to make a higher profit on the first shop, than to hope that they might come back and you'll eventually make more profit from repeat business.

I've been to Cuba which has a separate tourist currency.

That's the first I've heard of a shop in the UK charging different rates for locals though!