Shopping In Egypt - A Rough Survival Guide

If you hate shopping... you're really going to hate shopping in Egypt. Forget window browsing, because it doesn't exist there. The hard sell is one way of looking at it; a fully interactive shopping experience is another.

That bazaar magic is of course, the art of haggling, and depending on what type of person you are it will either send you to orgasmic heights of shopping or scare your wallet so far down your trousers that you'll find it hard to use that wad of notes as currency again.

I for one am far too genial to haggle effectively, but my wife has no such qualms and would happily barter, procrastinate and emotionally manipulate sellers until we walked away with a treasure trove of bargains for the price other people were paying for a postcard. This may sound awful, but I swear, they love to haggle in Egypt. An Egyptian street vendor who doesn't haggle is like the American shop assistant who doesn't say 'have a nice day' or the British clerk who forgets to scowl. Am I being stereotypical? Sure I am. But where do stereotypes come from? Well, in the case of haggling, they come from Egypt. And who better to haggle with than the ruthless capitalist tourists of the west?

A vast range of goods are available from Egypt, the most important of these being; trinkets based upon ancient monuments, spices (although these are not always what they appear to be), gold and cotton. All of these items are available at a price that is never entirely clear to you. You will not find a price tag and if you ask how much it is you will generally be given a price that is twice what you will end up paying for it... if you haggle that is. Shopping in Egypt is an art, a delicate multistage process that can culminate in extreme shopping satisfaction or a brain malfunction.

At the end of the day though, a good purchase is something that you want at a price that you believe is fair. Haggle politely, haggle responsibly and you may find shopping in Egypt an experience money can't buy. You can't haggle for that.

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