Today I had one of those conversations I believe husband and wives sometimes have when they forget to take turns at speaking and listening. Except I am not married and I never want to have another conversation like that again.
Let me start at the beginning. There is a cash crisis in Hephzibah at the moment because the government with very little warning declared 500 and 1000 rupee notes obsolete. New 2000 rupee notes have been released and new 500 notes are coming but this has put considerable pressure on the remaining notes in circulation 100, 50, 20 and 10 bills. As a consequence people are limiting their spending to the necessities of life like food and travel.
I somewhat naïvely thought it would be a good day to do some clothing shopping. I thought I might get a bargain or two as desperate shop keepers lowered their prices to get a sale. When one buys an item one usually has to bargain for it. When someone tells me the price I usually undercut it by more than half and then slower increase the price as the shop keeper slowly decreases his.
Sometimes I find the whole process annoying. I just want to pay a fair price but I know that kind of thinking is far from the shop keepers mind. He wants to get as much money as possible out of me. Foreigners are fair game.
Now I should say at this point that many of the clothing shop keepers are of the same religious persuasion. The religion where women tend not to have a particularly high public profile. I was browsing in one shop for salwar tops to replace the purple one that had shrunk. When I say browsing that is a rather loose description of what was happening. I was saying blue or purple tops only and the shop keeper was pulling items off a shelf that more often than not were the colour specified. As fast as he was pulling them off the shelf he was opening them on the counter for me to look at. I found one I liked and the haggling started. I should also say that I had tried to buy something from this shop two weeks ago and walked away because the seller would not go low enough. I think that is why he started the bidding at a lower price than usual. He wanted 900, I counter offered with 600. He said 800. I said 700. He kept going on about how it cost more because it was a big size. I finally told him he was hurting my feelings going on how big it was because he was making me feel fat. He said you are hurting my feelings because you are suggesting a low price. Next minute we were both,yelling isn't quite the right description , but speaking loudly trying to talk over the top of the other one, would be. It was kind of funny. I wasn't exactly angry but Katrina who was with me said I sounded it. Anyway as usual in those kind of futile conversations where no-one is listening and everyone is speaking and no-one will back down there is only one way to end it.
So I walked away. Fortunately someone was on hand to sell me the exact same item in his shop down the corridor. In this shop the asking place started at 1100. That was too much like a stitch up if you ask me. Too much I said and offered 700. Too little he said. So I walked away.
I said to Katrina I might try the guy I bought some clothes off last year. I found him and asked him about the top and wouldn't you know it he had the exact one. He said I had bought a red one for 1300 last year. No way I said. I'm pretty sure I didn't pay that much. The long and short of it was I brought the purple one for 800. I know. I know. I decided by this stage that 800 was probably a fair price.
Moshime took a photograph of the dress for me and it almost looks a little big. I wonder if it will shrink?
Let me start at the beginning. There is a cash crisis in Hephzibah at the moment because the government with very little warning declared 500 and 1000 rupee notes obsolete. New 2000 rupee notes have been released and new 500 notes are coming but this has put considerable pressure on the remaining notes in circulation 100, 50, 20 and 10 bills. As a consequence people are limiting their spending to the necessities of life like food and travel.
I somewhat naïvely thought it would be a good day to do some clothing shopping. I thought I might get a bargain or two as desperate shop keepers lowered their prices to get a sale. When one buys an item one usually has to bargain for it. When someone tells me the price I usually undercut it by more than half and then slower increase the price as the shop keeper slowly decreases his.
Sometimes I find the whole process annoying. I just want to pay a fair price but I know that kind of thinking is far from the shop keepers mind. He wants to get as much money as possible out of me. Foreigners are fair game.
Now I should say at this point that many of the clothing shop keepers are of the same religious persuasion. The religion where women tend not to have a particularly high public profile. I was browsing in one shop for salwar tops to replace the purple one that had shrunk. When I say browsing that is a rather loose description of what was happening. I was saying blue or purple tops only and the shop keeper was pulling items off a shelf that more often than not were the colour specified. As fast as he was pulling them off the shelf he was opening them on the counter for me to look at. I found one I liked and the haggling started. I should also say that I had tried to buy something from this shop two weeks ago and walked away because the seller would not go low enough. I think that is why he started the bidding at a lower price than usual. He wanted 900, I counter offered with 600. He said 800. I said 700. He kept going on about how it cost more because it was a big size. I finally told him he was hurting my feelings going on how big it was because he was making me feel fat. He said you are hurting my feelings because you are suggesting a low price. Next minute we were both,yelling isn't quite the right description , but speaking loudly trying to talk over the top of the other one, would be. It was kind of funny. I wasn't exactly angry but Katrina who was with me said I sounded it. Anyway as usual in those kind of futile conversations where no-one is listening and everyone is speaking and no-one will back down there is only one way to end it.
So I walked away. Fortunately someone was on hand to sell me the exact same item in his shop down the corridor. In this shop the asking place started at 1100. That was too much like a stitch up if you ask me. Too much I said and offered 700. Too little he said. So I walked away.
I said to Katrina I might try the guy I bought some clothes off last year. I found him and asked him about the top and wouldn't you know it he had the exact one. He said I had bought a red one for 1300 last year. No way I said. I'm pretty sure I didn't pay that much. The long and short of it was I brought the purple one for 800. I know. I know. I decided by this stage that 800 was probably a fair price.
Moshime took a photograph of the dress for me and it almost looks a little big. I wonder if it will shrink?
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