Did You Know?
That there is a centralised yet, not obvious, way of cheating and getting a away with it, that we all got used to?.
You must have experienced it once or many times but you didn't bother about it after sometime; not because you weren't hurt but it was because you were not the first person such will happen to, so you had to let go of it many times if you've experienced it more than once. This system of cheating is so common that you do away with the pain it caused you within a short time like it's a normal thing
What exactly is this Centralized Sytem of Cheating?
This system is the unregulated prices of goods and services, most especially in the marketplaces. As a Nigerian, I am not 100% sure about other countries, I noticed that the market men/women, roadside shops, kiosks, etc. cheat people with varying prices on their goods and services almost everyday, some do it everyday. I say it is centralised because it is found in almost every market like a day-to-day deeds of these people and they get away with it 98% of the times they do it; not because it is right but because each victim, most times, decide to let it go because they weren't the first to fall victim (or told they weren't the first)
The thing is this, a particular goods is meant to be sold for 500 naira but because Mr A wants more profit, he would lie that the price is 1000 naira, obviously raised the price high because you'd beat it down; then you, as usual, tries to beat it down to maybe 500 naira. Mr A will tell you that you can't get that particular goods anywhere in the whole market for 500 naira; then, he says take it for 700 naira, if you disagree, he then says the final price is 600 naira and that he has tried his best for you, we call it last price. Once you fall for this, Mr A will sell the goods to you for 600 naira and he gets extra profit, which is 100 naira.
To know that this system is so common, Mr A tries this same method for almost every customer that comes to his shop. And, Mr A is not the only one doing this, almost everyone in the market does this, it is a pattern that keeps occuring over and over.
This scenario is very common in the motor spare-part market, even anything related to machines; those guys can sell to you ×3 of the price of a particular goods, except you go with someone who knows the exact price of the part you need. For example, a car owner needs to get a new alternator for his car, if he goes to the spare-part market on his own without his mechanic, I bet that car owner would buy the alternator for at least + half or ×2 of the real price. Even after confirming the real price, it is common to just let it go since you already bought it by agreeing to that price.
That's just one example out of hundreds that happens everyday in marketplaces whether it's a roadside shop, normal shop or kiosk. Another one is buying phone accessories like charger, earpiece, phone case, pods, etc. It is now seen as normal thing which is not right, cheating is stealing. I can't remember vividly any form of cheating I experienced, except this day-to-day, centralised system of cheating in marketplaces and guess what....for now you can't do without getting cheated when buying stuffs in this part of the world