Besides, getting on an airplane to find socks is just ridiculous. So instead I’ve been getting mine at the tables out in front of the Zoo. They barely cover my ankles, so I just wear longer pants these days. I do love outdoor shopping - when it’s not raining or freezing cold. My dog likes it too, as most little street-front shops don’t mind the dog at all while we peruse the stalls.
Except perhaps the shopkeeper selling fabric and sirags that we visited today. While I was examining some threads, the dog began peeing all over the sirags unfortunately stacked too close to a nearby tree. But that embarrassment just highlights the state of retail in metropolitan Kathmandu: Open roadside shops with goods spilling onto the streets, collecting as much dust and grime as our lungs and nostrils do.
Still, in concept, I like shopping KTM-style. I like the family-run stores and approachable and friendly sales folks. Too bad the most friendliest and approachable shops around rarely sell anything that I need. Like printable dual-layered DVDs. Like a Bluetooth gizmo that will let me listen to music on my iPhone without getting all tangled in wires. Like double-backed tape and X-acto refill blades. Like Zippo lighter flints. And like size 12 socks...
But I admit my shopping needs are a bit eclectic for this part of the world, where a good batch of bananas and some fresh saag are items of utmost importance. However, the juice stall always has just what I need on a hot summer day: A double shot of mixed fruit. But I was shocked today to find that the price had jumped from NRs 35 to 50...still, a sweet deal by any means.
One of my favorite local stores of late is the Tea Showroom across from the German Bakery. It’s always super clean (until Krypto tracks mud in with his paws) and the owner is as nice as can be, and even offers a discount without ever having to ask for one. The tea is kept in huge containers marked Assam, Illam and whatnot and smells as fresh as can be. The owner even gives Krypto a nice scratching behind his ears before we leave (but he has no hope of pronouncing his name; he calls him Kaydough).
It’s this kind of shopping that makes me want to spend every rupee that I earn right here at home. Another example of how to run a business is Logix over on Butterfly Road. Sandee there is the nicest of sellers and is just a blast to visit. He always offers a cup of milk tea and a few minutes of pleasant conversation. Try getting that in a Wal-Mart in America – ha! It’s unfortunate that Sandee sells PC stuff exclusively and we went all Apple a few years back.
The larger grocery / department stores here just fine, but do we really need an entire floor of women’s shoes from China? All size “tiny” by the way. Yet I really like C-Mart over in the newer City Mall. They have those environmentally unfriendly tear-off-the-roll plastic bags to pack your veggies in, and for me, that’s nostalgia speaking, as C-Mart reminds me of any supermarket in America. But malls are malls the world over, and KTM’s give me the creeps just as any one in Kansas would. Too much light on too little stock on too many items that I really don’t need. How many mobile shops can we support, when it’s just one purchase per person every couple of years or so?
As an American I grew up shopping and learned how to shop while still in the womb. My mom spent as much time in stores as she spent at home, if you just count the waking hours. I was carted to every store imaginable as a small child, and I considered window-shopping on par with nature walks or strolls in the park up until I turned a teen. So even today I enjoy a good window shop with my dog by my side. Too bad windows are few and far between along the shopping row on Pulchowk.
So to all you shopkeepers out there – get some windows please! And try to keep at least one fresh piece of everything that you have in stock. I had to use a generous amount of the cleaning supplies I bought today just to get the dirt off the outside of the cleaning supplies - go figure.
And keep serving that great tea and try to keep smiling, even though it seems that we are all caught in the middle of an economic downturn. There is nothing scarier then a surly shopkeeper hacking up pineapple with a huge meat cleaver. But at least I have my huge dog to back me up in case of that unlikely eventuality.
Writer is quirky kinda expat happily living in the Kathmandu valley with Nepali family, friends, and a very large dog that likes to shop anywhere close to an open air meat market
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