If you are visiting for a week, maybe 10 days, yeah, sure you can stop and smile and shake hands and chat and pay your respects and say 'no' politely and move along. No problem, part of the Negril experience.
But try doing that for three, four - six weeks. Believe me, it wears a little thin. Sure, after a while most vendors will recognize you and leave you alone. But it's surprising how many will continue to hit on you almost every day. I walk the beach (a lot) during the mornings and late afternoons and I don't have the time nor the inclination to stop and 'show my (false) respect' 20 - 40 times a day.
Sometimes you have to get really sharp with them to get them to leave you alone, which is a downer.
Also, it's really annoying to be having a conversation with someone or a group of people and have a someone approach, stick themselves into your space, interrupt you and give you their pitch or beg for a beer/rum. Shows a lack of respect.
That's why I just tune them out - totally ignore them. It has become second nature.
There was one particularly persistent guy who stopped me every time he saw me. After a month of this I said to him, "Take a good look at my face and try to remember what I look like. See this hat?" I said, "I always wear this hat."
"Ok", he said.
"Now listen carefully, I do not need nor want your bracelets. I will never buy one from you. Understand?"
He shifted uncomfortably. 'Yah, mon."
"Good, so save yourself some time and me the bother and don't stop me anymore, okay?"
The next day he saw me and almost stopped me, but remembered our previous conversation and moved along.
You might think it was a little harsh, maybe so, but I had reached the limit of my patience that day.
In finishing, I met a couple this year - it was their first time in Negril. In fact, their first time outside of an all-inclusive. One day they were accosted - and I use the word advisedly - by a guy selling bracelets who attached an anklet and a bracelet to the woman. This was followed by a long harangue to purchase the trinkets. Afterwards, the woman was genuinely afraid to venture on to the beach again.
They will not be going back to Negril.
