Embarkiya n The Rip Off


Mubarkiya which is also called Souk elKuwait or old souk or heritage market is one of the places where no matter how much you bargain you feel you just can't win. Yesterday me and Bu Abdullah decided to go there to buy few perfumes. As he knows that I am good in bargaining and I often take use of the 4 languages I can speak.

We have one shop where we always end up as we have been going there for a while now. But today we decided to check the prices in the other shops and then get back to our usual shop where we always purchase perfumes from.

So finally after reaching this place I ask my friend to stay quiet and let me take care of the prices.. So here we enter in the shop we get the usual warm welcome and hajji taby chai hajji taby mai things that happen there :) which is kind of them indeed!

I ask him for 3 different perfumes he calls some other shop guy and is asking him if he has those perfumes in stock and gets the prices and gets me the perfumes. During his conversation with the other guy which was in one of the languages spoken in India which I can't speak but understand as its similar to Urdu I heard the prices like KD 8 and KD 12. When the products arrived and this was the real time to bargain. Guess how much he told me the price of the perfumes??

The one for KD 8 he was asking KD15
The other two for KD 12 he was asking KD 28

Its more than 100% profit on a perfume and thats when I had to lie that we have checked the prices here and there and the one he was asking KD 15 for we got it for KD7.750 and the one he was asking KD 28 for we got it for KD14. My friend couldn't stop laughing at the way I bargain with them. But I think its fair. Coming for a business family and being the son of a business man I have learned a lot of good and bad secrets about business.

A quick one is when one of the big stores in the malls put 90% off trust me they are still making good profit out of it :) Good Day!

Comments

Grey said…
It's everywhere, but specially in the perfume and makeup sector its rampant. I hope you got the original perfumes, cz a lot of them sell 'do number ka mal'.
Anonymous said…
The funny thing is we dont bargin in the big shops, we only do it in the small shops where the money is needed more ;p
Anonymous said…
grey: I got the original one!

blue: Well we know before entering them that the price is fixed so we keep our mouth shut and just say WTF thats too expensive and leave :D
Ansam said…
I love souk lembarikiya!
I know what you are talking about... same goes for the ma3areth el mojawharat when they come in once a year... I ask how much is this set of earings? He goes original price is 750, but I will give it to you for 400! I am like WHAT!!!! How much are they profiting when he pretend that he is dropping 350 before I even start to bargain! LOL
I ended up buying it for 250 ;-)
powder said…
i love the new black color :D
Anonymous said…
ansam: and I am sure you still feel after paying 250 that ahh why didnt u take the price more down :P

powder: thanks..enigma hates it!! hehe
powder said…
yeah i kinda thought so , she hated my blog when i first made it n then i changed it for her :P

now she doesnt read my blog anymore :(
Anonymous said…
powder: thats sad!! how many people will we please here?? I did change it before for her too but then I love black as a color for my blog I feel it gives my blog the sporty look unless she wants to volunteer in changing my whole blog background image which I am so in need for,hehe..I am sure she does read your blog secretly :P The love is there!

on a side note I wish I could have a different color blog to make her feel better..
powder said…
i think black is good , its also good for they eye
Anonymous said…
*PEACE*
Anonymous said…
I happen to like bargaining....!! And its always fun to call their bluff...!! Because these small shops are always bluffing with the price... (especially souq el 5amat!!!)
Shayouma said…
Oh I know nothing about a bargin lol.. I would buy something and my sister in law would say " are you serious?? it's half price here or there" loooool I just buy and donno if the shop is ripping me off or not.. My dad knows how to do that, I remember when we used to go to the Iranian exhibition he would talk with them in Persian and I would go far far away because he's so loud! LoL
Shayouma said…
Beleive it or not, I have never been to Mubarakiyya!!!
Lala* said…
3ad ana 7addy ghasheema in the art of bargaining :-(

I just pay what they ask of me, say thank you, and leave!
OutOfReach said…
uhh a7eb soog lembarkiya o i like bargaining there ambee t3lmat one word from my friend (cmti karoo) the spelling is wrong it means ra5e9li in indian :P my friend use to give me instruction every time we go there she would say dont smile if they give you a price o you think its cheap :P 7ata low 250 fils lol tgoli a5reb 3leeha lol
Anonymous said…
hamitaf: its a good experience :)

shosho: you should visit it next time you are here!

lala: ahh you need to learn this art :P

outofreach: the word if i am not mistaken is 'kmti karoo' :D
Amethyst said…
I don't like mbarekiya;\
I love Soug el Mubarikiya :)
And I have to say :p
I have a knack for bargaining ;p
I can keep a straight poker face ;p
but then yakser kha6ri and I pay him his original price , or shway aqal :p
Lol! :P Pretty much the same here in Qatar. Once they realize you're a Qatari, they try to rip you off. I used to bargain but I don't anymore- the guy gives us the best price he can afford to sell it. Sometimes, its usually half the price off. Treat people nicely and with respect and hey, they'll realise you're genuine and yeah :)

Did you get them for half the price in the end? Did he buy your story that you found it somewhere else?

So what are the fourth language you speak? I know the three already- Arabic, English, Urdu. What about the last one? :)
Anonymous said…
I LOVE Mubarakiyya. It's about my favorite place in Kuwait, mostly because there is so little of traditional Kuwait left. I'm also pretty good at bargaining, but not as good as YOU!

In Qatar, we used to go to the camel races. I never even hear about them here in Kuwait. Are there camel races?
Silver said…
multilingual (nods head thoughtfully)..impressive, but wat are the two other languages other than arabic and english? btw did u ever have dinner there? excellent service.
Mirror Polisher said…
I'm terrible at bargaining, i just pay the first asking price. It drives my mom nuts :D :D
Whatever said…
I can't bargain, I suck at it and I hate doing it. And I think people who do it are brave and kewl! =D
Anonymous said…
amethyst: you are a mall girl :P

bombay bombshell: so who is hidden behind your real face!!! DEVIL :P

maya: The fourth is ...... laters :P *guess it*

intlxpatr: you can take some lessons from me :D...well I never heard they have camel races here!!

g and I: I had dinner few times there..not a big fan of the kabab they serve there:)

mirror: you should change :P

fa6ma: want some lessons I give them for free, hehe
bb q8 said…
i like the bargaining too! akher, akher shay! what don't understand is how does the owner ever find out how much the stock was sold for??
I don't like bargaining!!
takes time and effort.
Anonymous said…
bb_q8: I will tell you that some other time in detail :)

oranjina: hehe its fun though you should give it a try!!
Navy Girl said…
ummmm hate to bargin ... if only they wont play with prices everywhere .. i mean even in sales they change the price a bit so the sale would look like a lot !! its all clever moves ... though still .. they are making good money no worries about them !
F. said…
Bargaining is a good skill to have...
I don't have it unfortunately :(
Deema said…
hello amu,
well i went to this perfume market before to get one coz a friend of mine told me about it while we were "intimasha bsoog sla7" so i got one and i was so happy to get one for as i remember 18kd which ten kd less than real price

o marrat ilayyam
until my sis came to me to tell me that this perfume is a 'tester' but still untouched

i wondered before why it doesn't have any cover, but that explains it :D

but that's not the point it is the fact that i guess a tester will definitely be less than 90% off the price, don't you think so!

and yes i always have this urdo number argument it is very useful (learning the numbers in urdo is enough to bargain), but i usually show them that i understand what they had said although i roughly did coz i usually depend on the sound effect of their voices :)

but also persian is helping me but in shuwaikh (thanks to my friend) :) (takhfeef bida) o cham targee3a minneee minak :P

i believe that learning languages are the best ways to bargain really!
Anonymous said…
navy girl: your italian man will teach ya:P

f: try it!! u will learn it soon..

deema: I need to learn persian too :) well let me tell you that usually testers are cheapest! If the perfume price is KD10 the tester wont be more than 5 or 6 KD...so be careful next time :P
G said…
I bargain with a lot of enthusiasm but I don't really know whether I'm good or not 'cause I don't know anything about the markups.

E for effort, I guess.

I REALLY need to brush up on my Urdu...the only thing that has lasted is really bad swear words. Not so great when you're bargaining.

I thought the fourth was Persian for some reason. French?
la2! walla tell me :P

chinese?! :P hehehe :P

nah.. Farsi!

Am i right? am i right? :P *jumps up and down, bouncing away with excitement*
Anonymous said…
none of them :) think more ? :D
I was going to post an entire list of langages but I'll exceed the character limit. So ok.. What letter does it start with? :P
Anonymous said…
navy: loool

maya: you still wont be able to guess it...it starts with S!
Swahili?! No freggin way! Sinhalese? Sudanese (I thought they spoke 3araby!)? Spanish?! I don't know!! Hmm..

Wait.. Pick one!

1. Sabaean (Semitic) (extinct)
2. Salar (Turkic)
3. Samaritan Hebrew (Semitic) (extinct)
4. Samoan (Malayo-Polynesian)
5. Sandawe (Khoisan)
6. Sangisari or Sangesari (Iranian)
7. Sanglechi-Ishkashimi (Iranian)
8. Sango (Ngbandi-based creole)
9. Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) (liturgical language)
10. Santali (Austro-Asiatic)
11. Sara (Malayo-Polynesian)
12. Saramaccan (English-based creole)
13. Sardinian (Romance)
14. Sarikoli (Iranian)
15. Saurashtra or Sourashtra (Indo-Aryan)
16. Savara (Dravidian)
17. Savi (Indo-Aryan)
18. Sawai (Malayo-Polynesian)
19. Scots (Germanic)
20. Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic (Celtic)
21. Selangor Sign Language (Signing)
22. Selkup or Ostyak Samoyed (Samoyedic)
23. Selonian (Baltic) (extinct)
24. Semnani (Iranian)
25. Senaya (Semitic)
26. Sened (Berber) (extinct)
27. Senhaja de Srair (Berber) (extinct)
28. Sephardi Hebrew (Semitic)
29. Serbian (Slavic)
30. Serbo-Croatian (Slavic)
31. Sesotho (Bantu)
32. Seto or Setu (Finno-Ugric)
33. Seychellois Creole (French-based creole)
34. Shahrudi (Iranian)
35. Shimaore (Bantu)
36. Shina (Indo-Aryan)
37. Shona (Bantu)
38. Shor (Turkic)
39. Shughni (Iranian)
40. Shumashti (Indo-Aryan)
41. Shuswap (Salishan)
42. Sicilian (Romance)
43. Sidamo (Cushitic)
44. Sidetic (Anatolian) (extinct)
45. Sika (Malayo-Polynesian)
46. Silesian (Slavic)
47. Silt'e or Selti or East Gurage (Semitic)
48. Sindhi (Indo-Aryan)
49. Sinhalese (Indo-Aryan)
50. Sioux (Siouan)
51. Siraiki or Seraiki or Southern Punjabi (Indo-Aryan)
52. Sivandi (Iranian)
53. Skolt Sami (Finno-Ugric)
54. Slavey (Athabaskan)
55. Slovak (Slavic)
56. Slovenian or Slovene (Slavic)
57. Soddo or Kistane (Semitic)
58. Soi (Iranian)
59. Somali (Cushitic)
60. Sonjo or Temi (Bantu)
61. Sonsorolese or Sonsorol (Malayo-Polynesian)
62. Soqotri (Semitic)
63. Sora (Austro-Asiatic)
64. Sorbian, Lower (Slavic)
65. Sorbian, Upper (Slavic)
66. Sourashtra (Indo-Aryan)
67. Southern Sami (Finno-Ugric)
68. South Estonian (Finno-Ugric)
69. Southern Yukaghir or Tundra Yukaghir (Yukaghir)
70. Spanish (Romance)
71. Sranan Tongo (English-based creole)
72. St'at'imcets or Lillooet (Salishan)
73. Sucite or Sìcìté Sénoufo (Volta-Congo)
74. Suba (Bantu)
75. Sudovian or Yotvingian (Baltic) (extinct)
76. Sumerian (isolated) (extinct)
77. Sundanese (Malayo-Polynesian)
78. Supyire or Supyire Senoufo (Volta-Congo)
79. Surigaonon (Malayo-Polynesian)
80. Susu (Niger-Congo)
81. Svan (South Caucasian)
82. Swahili (Bantu)
83. Swati or Swazi or Siswati or Seswati (Bantu)
84. Swedish (Germanic)
85. Syriac (Semitic)
Anonymous said…
OH SHitt..you are good in this...its no 48 :)
You betcha. :P

Sindhi? The thought crossed my mind but I just pushed it away thinking "nahh...." :P

How in the entire world did you learn that?! Apparently its a fast-dying language!
Anonymous said…
well I was in the sindh are for 3 years and going to school there it was compulsory for me to learn it :) any more questions :D ?
Nope. Just think that's fuckin cool! :P

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