When I lived in southern Spain as a teenager, we'd periodically go across the water to Morocco and pick up things at various markets... and it was simply expected that everything would be "ridiculously overpriced" for the express purpose that you would enter lengthy negotiations (almost like a chess match) back and forth to eventually reach an agreeable price. American tourists who'd just pay the price without question were seen as "ignorant foreigners."

Our Microsoft friend pointed out that there is actually a (or set of?) Chinese logograms that signify "Cheat, if you can get away with it," and it has a culturally positive connotation, implying that you are clever in business. To most westerners, such a thing sounds horrific...