Back home, convenience shopping means a major supermarket chain has opened up a small version of their corporate behemoths in your area, putting your local shops out of business by pricing them out of the market. But hey! They’ve got some parking spaces, cheap booze and a cash machine so it can’t be all bad!
Although big supermarkets have appeared in Egypt they cater more for wealthier citizens with cars, so, for the moment the local shop remains king of its little domain. In part this is down to the high population densities in cities, where twenty storey blocks of flats are often close enough to consider spitting at the neighbour in the opposing balcony should the mood take you. Huddled around the bases of these towers are little, one room shops dispensing most of your daily needs. So, even if you did insist on leaving your home to go shopping you wouldn’t have to go more than 200m, but you don’t even need to do that.
When I first went to my local grocers I wondered why they gave me a business card. It seemed a bit of an unnecessary promotional expense for such a small shop only selling basic vegetable requirements. I soon discovered that it was because they, along with every other shop, delivers straight to your door, even if it’s on the twentieth floor, assuming the lift is working of course. Whether you’re in dire need of 5kg of tomatoes, a pack of antibiotics (prescriptions aren’t a big thing in Egypt) or a head gasket for a 1997 Toyota Corolla, it’s only ever a phone call away. Admittedly I haven’t put the last example to the test but I remain confident.
Environmentally friendly vegetable supplier
Naturally this applies to take away food as well so you’ll have to find another way of working off the calories for your shish kebab and plastic tub of koshari – Egypt’s favourite carbohydrate overdose with tomato sauce. There is one of those new fangled delivery app things called Talabat but frankly you might as well just call if speed is of the essence, although they can be good on prices.
All this is simply only the beginning of the door to door service industry however. We must add mobile businesses to the mix. Any day is always punctuated by the cries of mobile vendors, many still with the traditional horse and cart, although cheap, Chinese, motorbike based three wheelers are becoming more common. These sellers can be ridiculously cheap: I asked one for a kilo of tomatoes and he said something about 10 guinea (60c approx) that I didn’t quite catch, so said yes and got a huge bag of them. Those disinclined to use the lift to come down and purchase their goods (stairs are strictly for life threatening emergencies only) equip themselves with a basket on a string. You shout out your order, lower the cash down and pull up your purchases, without having got anywhere near your front door.
Multi storey payment system
It’s not just about deliveries though, its also removals. I’ve often seen bags of rubbish hanging patiently from balconies at street level awaiting removal. However I’ve yet to discern the exact nature of this removal system but given Egyptian propensity for fly tipping I’m guessing it only travels the barest minimum of distances before coming someone else’s problem to deal with.
On a far more environmentally friendly note however, are what’s known as roba bekia. This is what in my youth was called a rag and bone man. I realise that to younger readers this is more likely to mean a certain talented vocalist but is actually an enterprising recycling service with a horse and cart. I have even seen one with rags and bones as its only load, a reminder of the term’s origins when bones could be boiled up to make useful stuff like glue. The Egyptian word actually comes from the Italian, roba vecchia, meaning old things, a product of colonial era cosmopolitanism. Again, some have embraced the automotive option but that doesn’t have the green credentials of a horse. They clip clop up and down every street to the shout of, “bek-ee-aaaa”, which some find intensely annoying but I actually quite like as it’s an honest days work for a traditional job that has adapted perfectly to the modern world, making a living out of limiting our damage to the environment. Sadly such noble environmental sentiments are yet to take hold among much of the population but it does at least demonstrate that they can still teach us a thing or two on the subject.
Roba bekia recycling service
Even the utility companies are happy to facilitate a home bound life for you. No going to some office or sending off money to pay for your bills in Egypt: they send someone to your door to deliver the bill and take the payment. Credit cards are hard to obtain for the average person so paying online or over the phone isn’t an option. The basket on a string arrangement is also used for similar financial transactions, should the agent concerned be unable to cope with the technicalities of lift buttons.
Should you be disabled, ill or just plain bone idle this system is ideal. The only dilemma is getting hold of the cash to pay for it all, which alas demands getting a job or going to a cash point once in a while.
