Lauren got two shirts made by a local clothing store. When she went to pick up the clothes, there was a little tiff between her and the merchant:
Merchant: 300 rupees each. 600 rupees total.
Lauren: No. I know these aren’t worth this much. 400 for both.
Merchant (shaking his head): 300 each.
Lauren: Don’t cheat. Give me the Indian price, not the foreigner price.
M: Where are you from?
L (lying – she knows it’s best not to say U.S.): Argentina
M: Are you here to study?
L: Yeah…I’m a student.
M: OK, Listen. You are rich and I am poor. You have money to come to my country to study. It’s fair that the prices are different. You have to pay more.
Lauren is taken aback by his frankness, but welcomes his honesty. “You pay more” is never something the merchants here talk about. They just hike up the prices and hope we are ignorant enough to accept them.
Still, she’s not entirely accepting of his logic. On the one hand, he is right. Six-hundred rupees comes to just about $18 U.S.– not exactly bank-breaking. So even at the “high” price, we’re paying much less than we would be for two custom-made shirts in the U.S.
The man is also right that even if we are “poor” college students by American standards, it must be next to unconceivable for people here to even consider the idea that we may not have much money. And truthfully, we are much better off than most here.
But, double standards also suck. If there’s one product, there should be one price, and, in my opinion, anything else is discriminatory. We are living here for four months, too – more like neighbors than tourists.
The shopkeeper wasn’t rude to her; he told her if she needs any alterations she should bring it back and he’d be happy to make the changes. In the end, the shopkeeper got it his way, but I don’t think Lauren will be going back any time soon.
And I’m still not sure if there’s an answer. Should we pay up the white prices or insist on Indian fees? Was the merchant was in the right? Sometimes I feel he is.
2 comments:
i love your pictures! the last one is my favorite.
as for the merchant question, i dont know if there really is a right answer. most of the time i feel the same way as you do, that the same thing should be the same price for everyone. but whenever i try to lower the prices on things when im in a different country, i always feel awful afterwards. i know it would have made little difference to me to pay the price they asked for, whereas it would have been much more monumental for them.
i think its only right for us to question though. if we didn't, we wouldn't have any sense of how lucky we are. it has nothing to do with generosity. people who are willing to pay any price and never question its fairness are wasteful and don't appreciate what they have.
Welcome to India!
During my time there I learned to say "Nye eeh chai eh!"
It means I do not want. Saying and that and walking away often got vendors to chase after me and they usually brought the price way down.
Learn all the Hindi you can and act like a local and they'll start to treat you more like one...esp outside the big cities!
Namaskar!
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