Money Money Money Money

Now that I've done the whole "I'm still alive" post. I thought I'd try and finally get around to posting about something that's been bugging me a while. As some of you may know I've been trying to learn a thing or two about economics the last couple of years, mostly via podcasts (NPR Planet Money, which I thoroughly recommend). I've been trying to get my head around a few of the economic activities over here.

Case in point is I saw a guy buying a pair of jeans from another guy on the street. But it was in the middle of a poor residential area with practically no other shops around. Now these kind of people are everywhere but mostly in town. They walk around with various assortment of things from clothing to Swiss army knives to flash drives to magazines. But this guys carrying pants around in this particular neighbourhood baffles me somewhat. If that guy is to make any money at all surely three things have to line up in his favour... A passer by:

a) needs some pants (possible but most people would probably head to clothes shops)

b) has spare disposable money (unlikely in the neighbourhood which is very poor)

c) has spare time to make the transaction (unlikely as everyone is focused on their own activities)

The more frustrating part of this type of operation is that the few merchants I've seen like this outside of the city centre, never seem to be in the same place twice so it's not like people could learn to look for them. Surely they could peddle their wears more effectively than walking random streets.

Another thing is the expectation to haggle when you buy stuff. What an absolute crappy way of doing things. You ought to expect to talk the price down of just about anything (excluding food/drink from restaurants and stuff at supermarkets with proper checkouts). But items at art markets, services of drivers in taxis or motos are all up for bargaining over. I can't stand it! Especially as most things are super cheap for Westerners anyway I feel pathetic trying to save a dollar here or there just because it's expected that I do. I was telling this new volunteer about this at the art market and how to me the less important thing is that I get a bargain but that I actually help a few different people out by buying the things they took time to make.

Actually that raises a bit of a third issue I don't like. And that is how so many shops in various areas (such as the art market or local shopping part of town) are almost identical - how do you avoid spending money at the same place everyone else does and therefore not spreading the love around? For example I was looking for speakers to buy the orphanage and found a few models that were in every single shop I looked at and the lowest I could talk most owners down to for a particular type was 30,000 rwf. So if that's the lowest but same price in more than one place (and they are all super friendly of course) how do you decided where to make the purchase from? It kind of feels like you let someone down arbitrarily. I'm talking small local shops with mismatched goods generally. I do vaguely remember a Planet Money episode that I'll have to dig up about a whole bunch of gold traders who were located in the same building and how they preferred it as retailers. As a consumer though, it drives me batty! Am I just too socially minded to be an effective consumer?

Oh and lastly the buses. But I don't even know where to begin to describe what happens let alone what my questions about them are. I'll just say that their business(s) structure is fairly complex I think. But apparently it works and I must say I'm going to miss them when I get back home.

Discuss.