American tourists seem to just be fine paying more. I've spoken to some street vendors about this. They say they start redicilusly high because some Americans pay it.
At the peril of sounding like a classist rich asshole (not from America) it actually is like that though.
If you go to a shop without marked prices in some country, you can either compare to an equivalent item at home, or to something from a different country that's not up to the prices at home, and still easily be off by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude. And that's even without the "I don't even want to haggle for that amount".
But let's say that mug would cost you 5$ in the gift shop in the neighboring city what is it worth to you in the vacation place? Either you don't care, hand them 5$ and think: maybe that will 4$ I overpaid will help you more than my next coffee at home, or you think: I've seen this exact mug at the seemingly more honest shop next door for 1$ - so you'll think that is a fair price? And then you might notice that they would sell it for 20ct to a local, apparently still making some sort of profit. In which scenario does the "ridiculously high" price start? Bonus points if you had already purchased a mug for 10$ in the same country, but in the capital city.
My personal opinion for that would be that I'd prefer to give 1$ over haggling down to the local 20ct, which can still be a ridiculous 500% - but it simply won't hurt me. Of course I can stomach the 5$, but it already seems like a bit of a ripoff.
I was just in Vietnam. Anytime a vendor tried this I just walked in most instances.. I was with a group that were from Vietnam, so it was easier to spot. And haggling is part of their culture in markets. I am fine to haggle, and heck even realize that as a certain point, happy to contribute to someones betterment if it cost me an extra 20k dong (aka less than 1$).
But there were definitely parts of the country where, based on how you looked, the starting price would be x and if you looked different it would be y. If i felt i was being taken for a ride, i would just walk. I even had a street vendor see i went to the next person selling the same thing but was less on the take and bought from them. This guy started following me and basically harrassing me. I had to actually raise my voice to get him to walk away.
That said, as a result my favorite parts of the trip were in my buddies hometowns where tourists werent common and thus, I was treated as a local, or at least a curiosity (I definately got looks at some restaurants as they were shocked i would eat the same things everyone else did without hesitation). In a few cases some asked to take picture but it was always warm welcome.
In certain parts I felt preyed upon and if you made eye contact it was like you were "hooked". I am much more likely to walk away from those encounters. That said, i dont like tourist traps in general, even in my hometown stateside.
We even tested this theory in some places where my buddy would go first and place his order. Then I would get the exact same thing and when we sat compare the cost. It was interesting to say the least.
Also what we noticed was that in his hometown, this never occurred. We paid the same anytime we tried this, even in the markets. It was to a point that by the end of the trip i was going out on my own and just getting what I wanted and most cases if my basic understanding of Vietnamese wasnt sufficient i was even comfortable fanning out some bills and having them pull what they needed.
I imagine this has to do with how little haggling is accepted in US culture. What the sticker says is what you pay unless you're at some sort of establishment like a flea market. We don't try to haggle because that's not our culture or expectation.
