Shopping

We went to a new Pazar today. It reminded me that a few people have asked how shopping is different here. Well, I’d say there are three basic types of shopping I’ve done. The first is in stores that are fairly similar to stores we would find back in Harford County. There are two malls with stores that are a lot like WalMart or Target. Ok, there are a few differences. The Walmart-like store has a full-service fish department (that you can sometimes smell from the front of the store). Its employees wear rollerskates—it’s quite a sight to see them whizzing down the aisle. It’s a busy, crowded place with loud music, kids everywhere, and people very willing to cut in line. There are also smaller grocery stores and convenience stores, and in the mall there are a few department stores, a Toys R Us, and other similar mall stores. All these stores have prices labeled, cash registers, sales—all that stuff that you might expect.
Then there are the local specialty stores. These are large, medium, and small shops that line the streets selling everything from tea sets to furniture to hardware to clothes to curtains to DVDs… There are little stores that specialize in everything school-related, books, paper, pencils, photocopies. There are stores that are just kitchen things, just painting supplies, just dairy products, just plasticware and household stuff. A few of these specialty stores you wouldn’t find in the states. One is the bakkal. That’s a little one room store that sells, well, stuff. The closest thing would be a gas station’s store. They have cigarettes, sodas, beer, candy and snacks, charcoal, newspapers, bread, lottery, and other random things. Another specialty is the firin, or bakery, where you can pick up fresh brick-oven-baked flat breads. You also have the manav, or fruit and vegetable store. For the most part, things at these stores are fixed prices, often labeled, and still not unlike what is familiar to us. One big difference that I’ve noticed is that sales people are omnipresent and helpful (too helpful?). You walk into the store, and someone says, “can I help you?” and then follows you around the whole time you are there, suggesting what you might like, pointing out the many virtues of any product you give a second glance…. Great chance to practice language, but I sometimes find the omnipresent salespeople a little overwhelming.
The last way of shopping is at the bazaar. We have one that sets up Sunday around lunch time a block away from our apartment. The vendors stay until after lunch on Monday. If you go on Sunday afternoon it’s a busy place with all the cars trying to park or drop off shoppers. If you go closer to the end on Monday, it’s a crazy place with every seller trying to out-yell the next guy and point out the virtues of his own good bargains. You can get all sorts of fruits and veggies, cheese and dairy products, fish, eggs, and some clothing and household things. Mostly people shop for veggies there. Frankly, I’m still a little iffy about buying non-refridgerated fish or eggs, but we get the most awesome oranges, sweet and cheap (+- .10$/lb). Theoretically you can bargain, although I usually head for a stall where the prices are written on a sign and pay what’s asked. I don’t see a whole lot of people bargaining anyway—if the price is too high they just go to a different stall. Ladies pull their shopping baskets behind them and stock up on everything for the week. Other guys wander around with trays of bagel-like things for sale on their head or carrying boxes of little sewing notions or gum. All in all it is quite a busy place! Yesterday we also went to a bazaar that is temporarily in the area that had all sorts of clothing, linens, toys, etc, rather than food.