Cloth Traders

These traders sold bed sheets, blankets, bed covers, curtains and dress cloth. Fabrics were their specialty. They rode on motorcycles with their wares bundled on the passenger seat behind them. They all lived in a certain part of the city, East Leigh, and spoke the same language.

They were typically bearded or unshaven and wore shirts with sarongs or wraps fastened around their waists. They also wore colourful turban-like headgear, and belts that held daggers in pouches. They preferred flip-flops or closed shoes without laces or socks.

They usually smoked and chewed a reddish-brown substance that discoloured their teeth and caused them to spit a lot. In addition, humming Semitic tunes seemed to come naturally to them.

They sold to housewives whose husbands were at work. Therefore, they did business in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon, but never at lunchtime or after conventional work hours.

They rarely sold for cash because their customers were not well off. Sales were paid for in monthly instalments, after wages were received by workers whose wives did the buying. For instance, a blanket would typically take four to six monthly instalments to pay off, after the initial deposit.

Depending on one’s financial ability, one could take a few items all at once or in succession, from month to month. Customers preferred the traders’ products because they accepted instalments payments, whereas shopkeepers did not. Moreover, because the traders did not pay rent, they passed on fewer costs to customers, hence their products were cheaper.

However, all these benefits came at an additional price to customers. The sellers were very licentious. They flirted openly, touched themselves inappropriately, touched their customers unnecessarily, winked at, serenaded and lewdly scanned their customers.

There was, therefore, a golden rule among the customers. The men were never allowed inside their houses. Buying took place in the open. Customers came together in front of a particular house, where the traders had parked their motorcycles. This, however, did not deter the traders from making advances.

Furthermore, the traders kept records of customers’ door numbers, and if one failed to pay as promised, for whatever reason, they did not take kindly to excuses. They threatened to reach for their daggers and insulted their customers. Sometimes, husbands got involved when situations escalated.

All in all, it turned out that some of the traders obtained their wares from big shopkeepers downtown, who paid them on commission to sell door-to-door in residential areas, whereas others bought them cheaply from wholesalers for retail sale.