Qatari prices

5 Dec, 2008  Annoyances

A lot of people say, ‘wear a thobe and you’ll automatically get respected’. To be honest, I’ve felt it. If I wear a pair of jeans, people in shops will usually not give you as much attention as if you’re wearing a thobe.

When I went to the electronics section of carrefour to pay for an item there were some guys cuing on the left hand side, however they were the only ones there. I cued on the right which was the correct side. The woman pics up the guys stuff and puts it ‘behind’ my stuff. Just as I’m waiting for the guy in front of me to finish, she tries to grab my stuff. I quickly put my hand on it. “Sorry, these guys were before me”. I pointed to the Phlipino guy. She said, ‘oh really?’ and proceeded to scan his stuff. Of course with my luck he ended up having a faulty barcode and they had to go search for another one and I stood there for a good while. That’s an example of a situation where sometimes I’m given an advantage.

However it’s not a good thing sometimes. Yesterday my cousin, who was looking scruffy in jeans, went to City Phone (next to the cinema at City Center) and saw that a mobile phone cost around 3,400 QR. He gave me a ring while I was in the office to let me know that they had it. It was a decent price for what it was and I decided to go get it because my last mobile (an E71) stopped downloading new emails and I didn’t understand why.

When I arrived I was looking all ‘arab businessman’ and asked about the mobile phone. “4000QR” he said. I assumed he wanted to bargain. “Whats your lowest price?”, I asked. “3800, I can’t go any lower”. I was starting to boil now.

“Liar. I don’t like liars. Give me a second I’m calling your boss.”. I’m quite a direct person when people lie or resrespect. As I dial a random string of numbers I continue to talk. “I know you’ve given me this price because of what I’m wearing.” He looked panicky. He grabs my hand and says “Common my friend it’s not. Really.”. “You told my cousin that it’s 3,400QR”, I continued to hold the phone up to my ear.

“Please sir, you should have told me that he was your cousin”. I put the phone down now. “Why should I tell you? You don’t know him and you weren’t doing him any favours, you just met him.” I raised the phone to my ear again. “Ok ok, I’ll do it 3,200QR”. I bought the phone.

As it can be seen, they assume that a person being dressed well will pay more and they won’t even BOTHER to drop the price. Lesson of the day? Look scruffy and cheap and you’ll get a better price. I hate this! ALL my cousins and friends hate this! We want to wear whatever we want to wear! I’m glad that more expats are wearing thobes, and more arabs are wearing western clothes. We’ll all be treated equal.

Now whether we’re treated equally better is another question.

  • Peter

    I agree with your assessment, it is a quite annoying issue. However, I think it is best solved by regulation.

    Some countries have rules about having to display price on all items sold, in a clear and unambiguous way. This price should be the price that the given goods is sold at. Discounts are still possible, but at least everyone has an idea of where the fair price is.

    Just the other day, I had the same annoyance at the Technical Care Services in City Center. (Where naturally none of the prices are marked.) I walk in looking for a Wii power adapter for 240V, “Oh, yes, we have the universal one, it’ll be 90″. He points to the opposite corner. I walk over there, and there his college says, “Oh, but it’s 85.” OK, great, so I get the bag and walk over the the payment station manned by a really sad looking guy. “He says, it’ll be 95″. I gently point out that the price I was told is 85 (the counter dude in the back is nodding, as I say this). He responds: “No, it’s 95.”

    I’m like whatever, I’m not arguing over $3 (a bottle of water at the airport). This whole exchange felt wrong to me. I will never purchase higher-valued items at their shop.

    (BTW, your post has formatting issues, quotes are all escaped with a backslash)

  • Kei

    thanks for sharing and also mentioning the formatting issue. I don’t understand why that happened :) . Fixed :)

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net/bjj Abuamerican

    I generally get the feeling I am being ripped off no matter where I go and what I wear. Lol.

    That said I will walk out of a store at the drop of a hat. There is a lot of competition out here so I don’t see the need to put up with people trying to take me to the poor house.

  • http://apple.com hamad

    this is just an act or racism people wearing A THOBE OR NOT every one should be treated equally
    for example when anyone asks me where I’m from (80%American,10palestinian, and 10%Pakistani) and when i say im Pakistani i don’t get treated as equally as all the other people but when i say im American or Palestinian i get treated treated more then the other people and i think this is just stupid ‘NATIONALLY SHOULDN’T AFFECT FRIENDSHIP’. now i tell people my true nationality including Pakistan which my dads from and i fell good at the end and don’t care what other people think i just don’t wand to lie to people all the time and now other people respect me when i told them this and u should too…

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    Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Qatari Government is a signatory of states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medias and regardless of any frontiers.

    The Emiri Decision Number 86 of the year 2007 on the establishment of the Doha Free Information Centre marked yet another step towards establishing a State of rights and freedom of speech. The decision stipulated that the Centre be a non-profit organization, headquartered in Doha City, and have the authority to establish other affiliated centres inside and outside Qatar. It is worth mentioning that His Highness the Emir issued a decision in 1998 annulling the ministry of information, giving birth to a new era of freedom of speech where censorship was removed from local media.