Willy, the scams are everywhere. I am so used to them now that being skeptical in every transaction has become second nature to me.
There is prepared meat that should be seasoned beef but turns out to be pork. The meats are injected with water to make them weigh more. There is additives in milk to increase the volume but are actually lethal. Do you remember the melamine in the milk that killed so many babies? Well justice has been served. since the dairy farmers supplied the volume of the milk and the factory only supplied small amounts of the chemicals, the culprits behind the scam paid a small fine. The dairy farmers went to jail. After all it wasn't that many babies that died. And then there is that second hand cooking oil. The recycled stuff that is sold at the back door of large restaurants by the kitchen staff. Or it is dipped from the sewers behind the restaurants, and sold to unscrupulous oil recycles who don't care where it comes from. And the fake eggs. Last month I saw a company get busted for selling fake salt (very nicely packaged industrial salt packaged as regular iodized cooking salt) it killed several people before they tracked down the source. There is not a week goes by that the government is in some brand name supermarket pulling some brand named product off the shelves because it is either fake or contaminated with something deadly.
I have been swindled so many times in the market and retail shops that I don't trust anyone. Not a cute little girl with rosy cheeks and pigtails, a monk, priest, not even a Mother Teresa lookalike! The fakes are good fakes. The packaging is identical right down to the hologram logo. But they are in fact, fakes or factory seconds that were retrieved from the dumpster behind the factory. I have many times purchased something, and the merchant on the pretense of getting me a box or bag to carry it in will turn away from me obscuring my view and swapping out the item I just tested and OK-ed for either an inferior or broken item. I have gotten to the point that when they hand it back to me, I will remove it from the package and inspect it to make sure it is the one I paid for. Some are offended but I don't care. If the don't try to cheat me they just won a repeat customer otherwise they get a good scolding and a scene in front of their shop. It takes the enjoyment out of shopping to have to watch the merchant every second to make sure you are getting what you just purchased.
Maybe you have gotten used to it or after being here so long you have a trusted network of retailers where yo do most of your shopping and don't nee to be worried about getting cheated.
