The things people do in this country

Jun 09, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I don’t stay out after 21:00 hours because of my security situation (though I believe if power hungry people want to kill you in Guyana they’ll get you anyway whether in the restaurant at midday or the nightclub at midnight) but I came close to being out late on Wednesday night. Sharon Harding, Leonard Craig and I, all activists from the People’s Parliament, spent hours liming at the five-corner junction at Laing Avenue and Hunter Street in West Ruimveldt. We drank so much Malta that the little shop ran out of the stuff.
During the conversation, Sharon made an announcement. She said; “Freddie ah see Acme Photo Studio selling computer monitors for nine hundred dollars and ah want wan fuh meh daughter.” I said, “You mean, nine hundred American?” She responded, “No maan, nine hundred Guyanese; is de old type dey selling.”
I emphasized the point that Sharon was talking nonsense and she should stop. A place like Acme, one of Guyana’s oldest serving establishments, would simply give the stuff to some interior schools that need them.” Sharon continued, “Freddie, no maan, ah see dey selling de things.” Leonard Craig jumped in and supported me, telling Sharon that it cannot be $900 and that Acme would not waste time doing that. Craig said that if it is indeed $900, he will buy ten and give them to some school.
The next day, I took up Sharon’s challenge. I drove her to Acme. Yes, she was right. Old desktop monitors were going for $900. I asked the young lady in charge why not give the stuff to an institution that needs them. She said I have to speak to the person that made the decision to sell. I agreed to talk to him, asked to be shown the entrance to the office, but she explained that he is out of the country.
What caught my eyes at this sale was a sign that said, “To be purchased as it is, no goods returnable.” Now quite a lot of small electronic items were in their original wrapping, so the customers could not ascertain if they are in working condition.
But why would any human being, any group, any store, any company put up stuff to be purchased and the customer cannot be shown whether it is in working order so if it fails to function at home, you can return it? No matter how cheap is an item on sale, the customer is within her/his legal right to see that it is a functioning product.
Here is a horror story I experienced a few years ago. There is a well-known downtown store that used to have a monthly sale up the East Coast. There was the bargain of twenty-five audio musical CDs for $1000. It was an incredible offer. Guess what? Don’t laugh. A car works on gas that you have to find money to buy, plus I paid a $1000 for those CDs. Only two albums were good; one by Johnny Mathis, the other by Barry White. I paid $1000 for two CDs because the goods were not returnable.
I shop at this store often, so I know all the sales attendants. I complained to one of them about twenty-three CDs being totally useless. She took me in a corner and intoned, “Mr. Freddie, don’t buy them things again; they take all the bad returned CDs and put them up at the sale; please don’t say I tell yuh.”
Could you imagine that? Could you imagine the things people do to the Guyanese people? Take Chinese goods. How in Heaven’s name, people in this country put up with faulty, useless manufactured goods from China? India and our neighbour Brazil are superb manufacturers of all types of consumer items. I only buy bath towels from India, because Chinese towels do not absorb the water on your skin; it just circulates the water as you pass the towel over your body.
I end with an incredible incident at a Regent Street store on Thursday afternoon with Chinese goods. My daughter requested a few pajamas. She wanted size – large. You are not going to believe this. The sales girl brought out a wide range of pants and every one of them was the identical size though the labels were different in terms of fit. In other words, “small, “medium,” “large,” and “extra large,” carried the same measurement.
The sales girl and I put each one together and they were all of the same measurement, though they carried varying labels of different sizes. In other words, the manufacturers just slapped on a different measurement label on all of them. Chinese labour is the cheapest in the world next only to slavery and indentureship. It is called communist imperialism.

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