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An Awkward Shopping Experience

I went back to the market today to pick up four more dresses. That would bring my count to nine – a week’s supply with two to spare and more than enough to go on. The ladies were expecting me and had actually pre-selected four dresses for me (with others available as backups)! Their choices were spot on and I went with them!

Again, click on the pictures to embiggen and see the patterns. First up is this very sweet blue, purple, and yellow exaggerated paisley pattern:

Next is a solid pink number with blue flowers:

The third one made me gasp, it was so unusual and unique. It has at least four distinct patterns, but they’re all from the same bolt of cloth. The bulk of it is a purple pattern on cream, but then there are strips with other patterns. The purple colour appears in all sections, but each section otherwise has different colours:

And finally, a pretty number with a pattern in shades of blue that rather evokes pasta floor tiles:

I went to pay and the lady said, “I think you paid $620 last week?” I was going to acquiesce when a man suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said, “Then, she will pay $660 this week.” So that’s the full price of the dresses this week, plus paying back the $20 discount I got last week.

The ladies were stunned speechless. I hadn’t strong-armed for a deal last week and one this week would have been nice, but I know the dresses are a great deal and I wasn’t going to balk over $40. It was just the man’s tone that completely put me off.

The older lady said to him, sotto voce, “She’s been a very good customer.” “I don’t care,” the man replied. “The dresses are $160 each.”

I pulled out $660 and handed it over, not wanting to get in an argument. But the lady said to me, “$640 this week,” glaring at the man, who let out an angry sigh. “$640,” she said again firmly as I tried, unsuccessfully, to give the the extra $20.

It was incredibly awkward — I didn’t want to cause her issues with this man after the transaction and, again, the amount of money wasn’t worth my getting in the middle of the argument. She continued to ignore the man and said, “Should I bring you more next week?”

I already hadn’t planned to get more so I declined, but did say that perhaps in a few months I might be back. She was clearly disappointed and as I headed out, I heard her and the man get back into it, although I was too far away at that point to know what they were saying.

So that was a rather unfortunate end to my dress shopping experience. I really don’t see how I did anything wrong, but I’d hate to have caused that woman grief over $20.

At any rate, I finally have a closet of pretty and climate-appropriate dresses and now I can go focus on… sandals. 🙂