When in
Morocco you’ll get in contact with a lot of people who want to sell you something. One theory says that you shouldn’t even answer them and move on or watch in a different direction. While it might work, I don’t like that much plus in many cases it might not work anyhow.
The reason I don’t like it – maybe it’s just me but it’s not polite. While they might want to sell you something, it IS their job and why should you be impolite towards people just doing their job? And the other thing – many locals salesmen don’t go away until they understand that you understand what they actually want to sell and if you say no then, they’ll be a lot happier.
When yet another sales person wanted to sell me watches, perfumes, sunglasses or clean my shoes, I just said „no, thanks” (or
No, Merci) to him before he even got to me. If he still insisted, you just look at him with a positive face and say the same thing again. They will leave. Often, before they even start to sell you something, they ask where you are from. While you know it’s just the beginning of their sales pitch, you can still answer. Of course, you don’t need to tell the truth. But why not answer and talk to them for a bit. And when the business starts just tell them “Thanks but no thanks, I don’t really need it.” They will accept it, you just need to be sure of yourself.
We were offered cocaine all the time, especially in Agadir. Their usual pitch starts with the „where are you from” line as well. Except for their line of work, they are usually polite and look like great people. After all, everyone in
Morocco sell drugs and anything else you can think of in addition to their main thing (if they are actually working elsewhere as well, that is). We sat down for a beer 20 meters from the guy who had just offered us cocaine. About 10 minutes later he came to us and asked if we REALLY didn’t want any cocaine. I looked at him, I looked at my beer, I looked at my fast-burning cigarette and told him „There are two things I really need to be happy – beer and cigarettes and I have them both here with me. But thank you for offering and good luck with your business”. He was happy with my answer and said he actually understands it well, thanked us and left.
