Flea Market Cancún — Local services in Cancún

Beware if you shop here! My brother and I visited this store on February 18, 2025, while riding around on scooters. We nearly got tattoos, but instead ended up buying a few shot glasses and an overpriced bottle of alcohol. Since the items were for my brother, he tried to pay but his card was declined. It was his first time out of the country, so we assumed his bank was just being cautious.

He wasn’t receiving the denial texts (likely due to poor service), so I stepped in and paid. I was told the total would be $200 USD the employee even showed me the conversion on a calculator twice. I agreed and swiped my card. But after the transaction went through, I saw I had been charged $286.35. When I pointed this out, the employee blamed my bank’s “international fee.” I’ve spent more overseas and never been charged that much maybe $3 at most.

At that point, I realized something wasn’t right. Back at the hotel, with better phone service, we saw that the real reason my brother’s card was declined was because they had first tried to charge him $336, and then $300. Since he had transferred exactly $200, anything more was going to be declined. The employee was clearly trying to see how much would go through.

To make things worse, the charge on my bank statement showed up as a hotel, not a retail store. When I disputed the transaction, they even submitted fake documentation and a forged signature. Initially, my bank sided with them. But I reopened the case, provided receipts and proof including a comparison of my real signature and ultimately got all $286.35 refunded due to the attempted fraud. It took nearly six months to resolve, but I document everything when I travel and that saved me.

Lesson learned: When using a debit card abroad, do your own conversion, bring exact change, and always pay in local currency (pesos). Don’t trust their calculator or their word...

I would not waste any time going here. From the moment we stepped foot there, we were , for lack of a better word, harassed by the vendors. I was looking forward to just looking around to see if I find anything I like, but they do not let you enjoy the experience from the non stop pressure and in your face insistence you come into their store and then try to sell you grossly over priced low quality items. So over stimulating when 6 different shop vendors are yelling questions at you and insisting you come to them. The jewelry store was most disappointing, claimed they were selling real gold 18k and 14k jewelry, but not a stamp on any of them for authenticity. When i pointed this out they literally tried to gas light me into saying there was a stamp there when there wasn't ( i have perfect 20/20 vision) and they even brought out a magnifying glass to look for the 18k stamp, and pointed to an area under the clas that an ant wouldn't even be able to maneuver to see it, and nothing was there even with the magnifying glass. I couldn’t be there for more than 10 minutes and felt like I needed to run and get out if there as fast as I could. Disappointing. Your best bet for souvenirs is to go to one of the larger souvenir stores near by, but this flea...

Very typical Flea Market that you will see anywhere in the world, not just Mexico. The prices here are decent on some items and not so decent on others.

You have to be prepared and willing to haggle and go through the motions of negotiating prices with a great variety of vendors who are all looking to score with you. No prices are displayed on anything 0so do not take the process personally. Look at it like a game and then it can actually be fun.

A couple tips...

Have an idea of what you are looking for ahead of time or you may get pretty sidetracked.

If getting the best deal is important to you then do some market research prior to going here. One place to check may be the Duty Free Shop.

Careful about combining too many items in the deal. This is where you can really get confused and confusion favours the Sellers.

Be willing to say No and stand your ground. Ultimately they need your money and will get proportionately flexible depending on what they sense from you.

Have fun with it. There are so many different personalities here in rgis market. It can be a blast.

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