Business is Business

For you my friend make special price.

Ever see a school of fish attacking a morsel of food dropped in the water? Just pause for even a few seconds on the streets of central Antigua and you will soon be surrounded by street vendors pressing you to buy scarves, table runners, necklaces and bracelets, hand carved flutes, and many other items.

Every vendor we encountered claimed to have made the item or wove the fabrics themselves, even when their items were exactly identical to every other vendor's items. We were immediately identified as 'friends' and promised a special price, followed by the phrase 'business is business'. Oddly enough the street vendors usually spoke better English than the workers inside established stores. Once we thought we'd outwit them by speaking another language but we soon found out they were prepared. One young girl, barely a teenager, already knew how to bargain in English, Spanish, Kaqchikel (Mayan), French, German and even Japanese. We were goners!

The street vendors were VERY persistent and even aggressive at times. Some of the younger girls hit us, slapped us with their wares and called us names. "Cheapskate!" and "Stingy!" were insults frequently in use. The only English word they were apparently unfamiliar with was 'NO', and in fact it appeared to fuel them. The louder the 'no' the more vendors arrived. We decided that 'no' must be the ancient Mayan call to congregate. While incredibly annoying, we chose not to get angry at their persistence, in fact, we did just the opposite and made it into a game. We laughed and laughed WITH them, yet even in their laughter they still worked in the request for us to buy.

"Just one more and you finished". "You buy from her, my friend, you buy from me too!". "Why you buy from her and not me? You no like me?" "You need for your wife", "you need for your mother-in-law", "you need present for friend", "no friend? then buy for your enemy", "I make you better price for TWO", "take one more and I make you even BETTER price!". After a young girl's plea of "Please buy, for my lunch", we offered some money without taking an item. She declined and just presented a more expensive item to buy.

Most of the street vendors were female, but a few were male. Some were younger girls, but ALL had gone to the same school of "Business is business" and we heard the same pleas and phrases repeated by all of them.

We were never so afraid of short women as we became when passing through the central part of the city. Fortunately we tall Americans have longer legs, and the shorter Antiguans could eventually be outrun. But they are sharp to follow escaping tourists around corners too. Boo! "Business bad today so I make you even better price!"