070112 The Baazar, Me: How much is that <item>? Merchant: (leans back) How much you got???
The Afghan baazar is a lesson in culture, theatrics and inter-personal strategy. Above are some pics of 'stuff' that you can find at the Afghan baazar that is held on the soccer field (which doubles as a helo lauch area) on Fridays. As you can see there is an assortment of items for sale and unlike in Iraq, much of the stuff sold here in Afghanistan was actually made in Afghanistan. Having said that, beware that these merchants are prime at their game and I'll be the first to admit, I'm still not on at thier level of gamesmanship.
First of all, asking how much something costs is a big mistake. I did this THREE times and in every case the reply was "how much you got?" And YES, they will take all the money (dollars, euros, dirhams, etc) that you give them. It's foolish to go there without doing a thorough cost analysis of any item that I might want to purchase. And theatrics!? How many times have I heard how the guy's brother had to dodge bullets to transport the blue rocks!? Typically I have discovered that an item is marked up 5-6 times what I should really pay. So anything over that is gravey for these guys. And the kid wanting to sell me the rock picture of the camel started at $60. I offered $10, he then offered $30. I wanted to keep playing so I offered back $15. He offered $20 and I then said $10. He kept going on how it was made of lapis (every damn blue rock here is lapis) and I started to walk away. He then came down to $10 but I said maybe next time and kept walking.
First of all, asking how much something costs is a big mistake. I did this THREE times and in every case the reply was "how much you got?" And YES, they will take all the money (dollars, euros, dirhams, etc) that you give them. It's foolish to go there without doing a thorough cost analysis of any item that I might want to purchase. And theatrics!? How many times have I heard how the guy's brother had to dodge bullets to transport the blue rocks!? Typically I have discovered that an item is marked up 5-6 times what I should really pay. So anything over that is gravey for these guys. And the kid wanting to sell me the rock picture of the camel started at $60. I offered $10, he then offered $30. I wanted to keep playing so I offered back $15. He offered $20 and I then said $10. He kept going on how it was made of lapis (every damn blue rock here is lapis) and I started to walk away. He then came down to $10 but I said maybe next time and kept walking.
R/Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment