Corner Store Grocery Guy

The company is kind enough to provide us with 5 local shopping trips every week.  On Monday and Tuesday, we go to a local grocery store about 10-15 minutes drive from our house.  The bus leaves at 4:30 from our apartments, drops you at the store, then leaves to head back to the apartments at 5:30, so you get about 40 minutes to shop, which is enough time provided no prayer times fall within that window of time, and that there are no long lines to check out.  On Thursday they take us to a local mall for three hours later in the evening, from 5:30 to 9:30.  Luckily there is a grocery store next door to the mall.  On Friday they drop us off at a grocery store on the kornich, so you can buy food or walk along the water or enjoy some of the many restaurants, but you better be willing to do it for four hours.  On Saturday they take us to a big mall for another three hours adventure.  I have never been a shopper.  I really hate malls.  Sadly though, when you buy fresh fruit and vegetables, you can't really buy in bulk, or the stuff will go bad.  So, as much as I hate shopping, it seems as though I almost always found myself on one, sometimes two shopping trips each week.  Or at least, I was until I found out there was a tiny corner shop that sells fruit and veg about two blocks away from our apartment.

Just getting there is an adventure.  What does every adventure need?  Companions.  Particularly in our neighborhood, where it isn't advisable to go anywhere alone.  So the first step is convincing one or more of the girls that what they really want to do with their time when they get home from work is to put their abaya back on, go outside in the 109 degree heat, and walk two blocks to buy bananas with you.  Once that mission is accomplished, you start the journey to the store, which involves pretending to be oblivious to all the guys in the cars who pass by honking or shouting things at you as they drive by you as slow as humanly possible.  I can only assume they are taking the opportunity to stare at the abundant folds of your abaya, since it is impossible to discern any kind of body shape.  Some particularly aggressive ones have been known to stop and reverse once they have already passed you, or drive around the block for another go at you.  Usually, all they do is shout obscenities, but occasionally they will also throw a waded up piece of paper at you, which they consider flirting.  The papers contain their phone number, and is your invitation to the underground world of internet/mobile phone courtship in Saudi.

If you manage to survive the walk having received less than two comments, or "slow drive by's"  it's considered a small victory.  But it isn't a success until you actually arrive at the shop and find it open.  The shop keeps no definitive hours, so it's kind of a crap shoot if they will be open or not.  I have seen the lights on sometimes when driving past after 11pm, and sometimes it is locked up tight at three in the afternoon, but just as often, it is the exact opposite.  Even when you are lucky enough to find it open, there is still a chance that today, he will not have the item you need.  The shop is literally on the corner, and when the store is open, the actual door is wide open, with a sheet of plastic hanging down in front to keep in the AC.  Two of the walls have supermarket style refrigerators with the fruit and vegetables pre-packaged in convenient 5 riyal packages (a little under $2).   Sometimes there is lettuce, sometimes only oranges and carrots.  Usually there are tomatoes and potatoes, and on a good day he has mangoes and pomegranates as well.  But you just never know what you are going to get.

The man who owns the store is a perfect caricature of a Saudi man.  He wears the white thobe and the red and white checkered picnic blanket on his head.  He looks to be in his late 50s, and he absolutely loves us.   I have no idea why, but from the first moment we showed up in the shop, he became our "uncle".  He said a few words in English repeatedly, such as "America" and "you" and then launched into a long but presumably beautiful speech in Arabic about how welcome we were.  He insisted on giving us a watermelon for free, and demanded that we come back often.  He also asked me about a large black woman.... at least, I think that is what he was saying...

Since then we have come back often.  Each time, he greets us enthusiastically, helps us pick out the best produce, insists we take more than we need, and then charges us almost nothing for it all.  The first few times this happened, I didn't realize how much of a deal we were getting.  I was still trying to figure out home much things cost, and just trusted him as a business owner to tell me how much to pay.  I few trips to the real supermarket later, I started to realize that I had been paying him less than half of what the food was worth.

On our next visit, I didn't even ask him what it all cost, I just gave him 30 riyals to try to make up for some of the other visits.  He took it without looking at it (I folded it up inside a 1 riyal note) and figured I had made up for it, but he chased after me and insisted I take a big package of dates that was probably worth 15-20 riyals.  So much for that.

The following visit was the last day of Ramadan.  He scolded us for having not been to see him for a few weeks and we protested that it was Ramadan and we didn't know if he was open (and to be fair, we had tried to come before but it was closed).  I asked him to pick me out a good watermelon and decided to grab a bag of potatoes (which I later regretted, I forgot I was going to be carrying them for two blocks).   The other two girls picked out their various purchases and when we were ready to pay, he invited (we think) to join him for Eid the next day.  Eid feast is the first day after Ramadan, and everyone wakes up early to pray and then eat a huge meal with their family.  They then spend the rest of the day going from house to house visiting relatives and friends.  He kept saying something about his shop and his phone and his wife and tomorrow, but that was about all I got.  The other girls clarified that he was inviting us to his house to meet his wife tomorrow.  We thanked him and tried to pay him and this time he refused to take any money at all.  After all, this was Ramadan, and you get double points for good deeds, but only one more day!  I decided to "accidentally" drop some money on his chair by the door as we left.  One good deed deserves another, right?

The next day I tried to rally the troupes.  I was kind of excited to meet our "uncles" wife and see there home, and no doubt eat a lot of dates and Arabic coffee.    There were two problems.  One, we had no idea what time he wanted us to come, and two, neither of the girls wanted to go with me.  I couldn't believe that they weren't as excited about it as I was.  One said she felt it was kind of creepy, although, I didn't feel that way because he wanted us to sit with his wife and not with him... so I felt it was a genuine offer of kindness, and of course, indoctrination, but still a genuine offer.  The other just didn't feel up to the walk, or sitting for who knows how long without understanding anything he or she said to us.  I guess they had fairly valid reasons.  I thought about going alone, but the thought of facing all the harassing guys alone, plus the fact that I had no idea what time to go, and if the man would even be at his shop on such a holiday helped me decide that it was better to stay in.

I was anxious to go back to his shop because I didn't know how to explain why we hadn't accepted his invitation.  The first time we went back after Eid, a younger guy, possible a son or nephew was managing the shop.  He was much more professional than his father and didn't try to talk to us or give us anything for free.  In fact, he overcharged us.  I didn't mind, I feel like it makes up for all the things his dad or uncle keeps giving us for free.  The second time though, he was there.  I smiled a lot and said I was very sorry, but that was all I could really manage with my fledgling Arabic.  After an initial mild berating, he seemed not to mind and launched into a speech that based on hand gestures could have had to do with either something really small or really expensive... a lot of something else, three of another thing, and also the characters Mary and Joseph.  He threw in a few words about Syria and Iraq while he was at it.  I tried to slowly make my way to the door, but he was very into his story now, which seemed to include a midget and something to do with his shoulders.  Finally the other girl I was with, exaggeratedly and suddenly noticed the time.  We tried to hand him some money, but he wouldn't take it, and told me not to leave it on the chair like last time.  He seemed more upset about that then us not coming to meet his wife.    We thanked him again and left the store loaded with lemons and tomatoes and zucchini.

I keep thinking this guy will be perfect for practicing my Arabic with, but then I remember he would probably never let me get a word in edgewise.  Too bad really.  I was thinking I could help repay him with English lessons.  Either way, these trips are shorter (although the last one not so much) than the shopping trips and far more entertaining.  I can't wait until I'm out of cucumbers and carrots so I can go back.  I'm looking forward to trying to figure out what happened to the midget and the three small things.