BAGRAM, Afghanistan – It’s not Macy’s, but the bazaar here had plenty of business on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving.
The busiest shopping day of the year in the United States was just like any other Friday here, when Soldiers marched with their wallets to wheel and deal for a bargain on Afghan rugs, furs, DVDs and the jewel of Afghanistan – semi-precious lapis.
There were no markdown stickers to lure in Soldier-shoppers. No buy-one-get-one-frees or 10-percent-off-if-you-apply-for-credit-card-today deals. At the Friday open-market here and elsewhere in Afghanistan, the only bait for shoppers is the friendly Afghan trader who promises, “For you my friend, I give you my best price.”
“When they say ‘best price,’ they don’t mean your best price,” said Pvt. Sarah Perret, 10th Military Police Company from Fort Drum. According experienced bazaar shoppers, the “best price” is almost twice as much as a dealer will accept for an item after a delicate process some call “haggling.”
Indeed, Soldiers who have visited the bazaar almost every Friday say there’s a strategy to shopping there.
“It’s like buying a car from a dealership,” said Spec. Bryan Allison, 10th Signal Battalion and self-proclaimed haggling expert. “Signal people know how to haggle because we haggle all the time (to do our jobs).”
The haggling usually starts when a Soldier counters the dealer’s “best price” by cutting it in half. The dealer may spend some considerable time explaining the craftsmanship that went into making the item.
The next step, Soldiers said, is to walk away.
“I tell them I’m going to get a better deal from someone else,” Allison said. “They watch me walk away and come after me with a better price.” After that, it’s up to the Soldier to get a better deal if he or she wants one.
There are other tricks to buying at the bazaar.
Spec. Joshua Palmer, also with 10th Signal, buys DVDs by the pair with a $5 bill.
“I just hold out a $5 bill and two DVDs until they take the money,” Palmer said.
And the dealers sometimes accept more than cash. Soldiers have swapped tiny flashlights, CD players and other items for Afghan treasures.
Not everyone walks away from the bazaar with great deals. Some said they don’t have the negotiating skills to barter a deal in their favor. Others said they have paid the asking price because the Afghan economy could use a boost.
But according to Allison, who dickered out a deal on some jewelry, “in this country, you can’t get robbed. For $10, you can’t go wrong.”
Regardless of how much they paid, Soldiers here haggled for local treasures that will find their way into stockings and under Christmas trees at Fort Drum and some North Country residences in coming weeks.