Shopping Trip

The art market in Accra was quite a place. First of all - the layout. It is mostly open air under a giant rectangular roof like you might see at a fairground. Most of the vendors have a single booth that is about 8' by 8'. The whole area is like a giant grid with about 8 long aisles running the long dimension of the shelter and some shorter aisles running the shorter dimension of the building. There were probably 40 boothes or so on each side of the long aisles. There was a brief break every 6 boothes or so for the shorter cross aisles.

Every single shopkeeper that you pass will talk to you. Every single one. Without exception. They will beg you to please come into their 'store' and look around. They can fit a look of products in their 8’ by 8’ space. And they generally have most of the access from the inside of the booth to the aisle blocked off to make it more difficult for you to leave. Most shoppers do their best to not make eye contact and avoid stopping until they are ready to be harassed. Some store owners will stay 6 or 7 boothes away from their own booth so they can talk to you while approaching their ‘shop’. And all of them will offer to escort you to the shop that has exactly what you are looking for, no matter what it is that you say that you are looking for.

There are no prices marked on any items. When you ask for the price, they will always start with a high price than will begin the negotiation. The general rule tends to be that you can usually get an item for half the starting price or less. It varies among the different shopkeepers. So what I ended up doing was starting with an offering price of 25%-40% of what they were asking. From there you negotiate. This almost always involves walking out of their store at least once. But they may come looking for you after a while, to restart the negotiations.

My first purchase of the day went like this: I saw some artwork that I really liked and kind of lazily looked at the items in the store. I tried to not act real interested in anything (I had been coached by some experienced shoppers). As I looked around I saw 5 pieces that I liked, there were 2 small banana leaf pictures, and 3 small original paintings on canvases. They were all about envelope or notebook size. I asked how much for the 5 of them together. He said the price was 950,000 cidis (about $95) total for the group.

I immediately acted greatly offended (as I had been coached). So I started off by offering him 200,000 to which he was greatly offended. He said that he could only give me one of these items for 200,000. We then looked over the 5 items again and went through their various qualities and he came down to 930,000 because he wanted to give me a good deal. I said that was way out of line and he said he would come down a little more, but I should be willing to negotiate. So he came down to 900,000, and I went up to 220,000. To my new offer, he replied, friend, friend, friend, I'm trying to help you out here.... and so on. By this time I was smiling, laughing, and just really having fun. So we kept going. He was telling me this one particular piece was worth more than 220,000 by itself. So I asked him to take that piece out and give me a quote on the other 4. We did several variations on that. I tried to leverage my abilities in Algebra during negotiation as much as possible. He finally came down to 870,000. And it went on, and on, and on. At some point he took one of the canvas pieces and creased it sharply down the middle to show how it made no impact on the picture because it was an original and of the highest quality. Of course, I acted not the least bit impressed and even tried to fake a yawn or two as I glanced at the other stores. In reality, I thought the creasing thing was really cool. After much more negotiation, he finally got down to 600,000 and I had gone up to 350,000. Around this point, we hit a standstill, so I told him I'd look around other shops and come back later. He was very disappointed that his "brother" would leave. So I told him that maybe I would come back and visit my "brother" later. I don't think that he quite knew how to take that. I guess that not many shoppers refer back to him as their brother.

So I went shopping a few booths away with Robert (Robert had been watching this whole ordeal and I think got a bit of entertainment out of it). We had gone down a few booths and around a corner to another booth that we were looking at. The previous shopkeeper had been keeping an eye on us and waited a minute or so to follow us. He came up to me with the 5 items in his hand. He said that if I came back he'll make a deal that I would really like. So we went back for round 2. At this point, I realized that it was going to take some stamina. I also started seeing this as a kind of sport. A sport? After all, what intrinsic value is there in getting a basketball through a hoop or hitting a baseball 400 feet? It's only fun because of the challenge and the competition.

So we got back to his 'store' and I opened with something about taking my offer of 350,000 to which he was greatly offended, but he would give me the best price he could now, 550,000. This, of course, was a terrible hardship for him, but he really wanted to help out his brother (me). He also said that I was a great customer. I told him that I only came back because I thought he had decided to accept the 350,000 and that I was deeply offended to come back all of this way. So we talked about how much we each wanted to make a deal work and help the other one out (being brothers and all), but eventually reached another impasse. As I was leaving the store, he asked me to make him one more offer, my very best price. I told him that I would make him one more offer and that would be the final. He looked happy. So I told him 380,000 - take it or leave it. He said, Oh Brother I can not do that, you must understand.... and so on ... So I left.

I casually checked, but he didn't appear to be watching me, or following us after we made a few turns. I was worried that I was being too difficult; after all, I did really like the items and would have paid more than 380,000 for them. But since it was my first attempted purchase of the day, I decided that I had to leave just to learn more about the whole purchasing system here. And besides, to truly bargain, you can't get too attached to any specific items.

About 10 minutes later, Robert and I were in a completely different part of the market and the previous shopkeeper found me with the 5 items in his hand. He told me that he really wanted to help me out and that I should come with him back to his shop please, because he wants to help me out. I said sorry, 380,000 was the best I could do. He told me again to come back to his shop. I finally played hardball, pulled out exactly 380,000, and said here it is, take it if you want it. Then I start walking away. He said “brother”, and I turned around. He looked at me with a solemn look, said "OK" in a whisper, took the money, and gave me the 5 small pieces of art. I gave him a hug and said “thank you brother.” He hugged me back and said "yes" in a quite voice. I seriously almost teared up when it was all over. It was like two rival teams finishing a best of seven series that went into overtime in game seven. And I also strangely felt that we had both somehow enjoyed the affair and had made each other better.

I went on to make a few other purchases at the art market. The other purchases were similar, but not quite as intense, although they all involved leaving the store at some point. It was a great day, although I did loose out at one place. I was negotiating on a pair of items, a purse and a woman's dress. I eventually ended up offering 120,000 cidis (about $12) for the pair and the shopkeeper had come all the way down to 160,000. I had walked away and they had followed me. I got out the 120,000 and offered it to them as I was heading to the exit, but they insisted on 160,000. They eventually came down to 140,000, but again I took out the 120,000 and walked towards the exit. They stood firm on 140,000 and I stayed at 120,000. They let me go and never came to find me again. I was shocked. Hopefully that means that I had found the real price.

The coolest thing that I bought was a carved wooden drum. It's about two feet tall and 9 inches in diameter at the top. It is roughly shaped like an hourglass with the body being hollow and the bottom open. I finally talked that shopkeeper down to $16. Later on, Robert was negotiating for a similar drum from another shopkeeper and was stuck at $20 when I noticed. The shopkeeper was holding firm, so I offered to sell mine to Robert for $18. I told Robert that I got mine at another place for $16 and would sell him mine for $18 and buy another for $16 to replace it. The shopkeeper asked where I had bought mine. I told him and he consented to $16 for Robert's drum. But he didn't look real happy about it.

I had asked about how they make the drums, and someone had offered to take me to the place where they are made. I took them up on their offer and was led out of the giant shelter through a maze of dirt paths and small artisan shelters to a small shelter with several men making drums. There were dozens of drums in various stages: carving, weaving, stringing, painting, etc. Oh, and during the entire 5 minute walk back to the drum makers and the return walk, another shopkeeper that I had expressed interest in earlier followed me to continue negotiation for an item that I ended up not getting anyway.

So I ended up with: 3 canvas paintings, 2 banana leaf pictures, a drum, a drum case, a wood carved Ghana symbol wall hanging, a wood carved unity thing, 5 letter openers, and a child’s shirt. And all of this for less than 1,000,000 cidis!