In Prague or Budapest about '88 - hazy now as we were moving about a lot - before the wall came down, but the "thaw" had started. McDonalds just opened a restaurant, first in the city. Anyway there we were looking at this enormous queue... the biggest damn queue I ever saw, It went round the block, and the next block... like how people camp out for black Friday but thousands and thousands of people. Each burger was the equivalent of a few weeks wages. But nothing could stop them, all hungry for a bite of "freedom".

This scam was popular in post-soviet too. Basically a very annoying salesman who reiterates on all sorts of reality bending pushes once you let them in. You may think it shouldn’t work but it does, on people whom you wouldn’t call idiots. As I understand it, it leverages the tendency to respect authority and avoid conflict, among other sales tricks.

There’s an old joke about it:

Salesman: (enters the room and dumps trash on the floor) If our vacuum cleaner can’t clean this, I will eat this trash!

Dwellers: You can start eating cause electricity is off for three days.

Colleagues in workplace started buying and were receiving commission by referencing next client. Trained salesman visited home and used all dirty sales tricks and pitches. Until now I remember "don't say this vacuum is expensive, this is Mercedes of vacuum cleaners, everyone desires even a substitute of Mercedes", or "a salesman enters someone's home with an attitude that they own him the commission money". You grew up in Communism with an absolute shortage of everything and are unable to evaluate good value in market economy. Fuck this manipulative psychopats.