It also vaguely seems elitist, IMO -- it smacks to me of the "good ol' days" of the Other System where peasants are level 0-schmucks.
One one hand, I suppose it may just be that the average non-hero has lots of augments going into the marketplace from Distrust Merchant, Tight With Money, Crops Weren't So Good This Year, etc, so that the average merchant needs all that magic.
The flip side, and how I'd play it: merchants aren't stupid, and repeat customers are important. So they'll do what they can to "help nudge you," but not simply overwhelm you. To pick up Jane's RW example, they'll carefully shade their stores in colors that make you more likely to buy, display well, offer ads and rebates to suck you in, use lighing, put in mood music, etc. But they know that if they're "unfair" (say, pipe in mood-altering drugs in the air system, use hypnotism on you, and so forth) you're not going to come back. (Or, rather, will come back with the police).
IMG, a merchant is going to use magic to "sweeten the deal," but isn't going to try to rip people off: it ain't Issaries, for one thing. So it's Good Show to use the magic to win you over (sure mayb even use a 10w3 skill or something), then _give back_ some of the purchase price ("lucky penny"), throw in something as a "free gift," etc., to show that even though they could zonk you because of their innate magical ability, they won't. Because that's how Issaries would do it, because he's the god of Fair Profit, not the god of I Can Use My Magic to Rip You Off, Sucker.*
Of course, each worshipper's definition of fair profit may vary... : )
Cheers,
James
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