When you walk into a Nigerian market and I am not talking about a small corner shop or supermarket, I am talking about a place filled up to the beam with different vendors in their respective shops, marketing their products to respective customers. This will sound chaotic to your ears. Someone from a different angle, shouting come and buy your fish, another one telling you that they have fresh leaves, so you should come to them and not the other person.
Things like this and more are part of what make up the sounds of the Nigeria market. If you are a first timer that is not used to this kind of chaos, you will get overwhelmed easily. Fatigue will creep up to you quickly and one of the reasons is this market is usually a big place and the odds are always in against you, in the sense that you hardly get all you want in a single place. That is the thing about markets, by the time you step in, you will see more things that you probably forgot you need, hence you have to move further to other shops and vendors. Slowly you have covered more grounds than you anticipated you would.
Despite this overwhelming aspect of going to the market, it becomes truly understandable when you figure the rhythm or code of conduct that lies within the Nigerian market. It is all about buying and selling where haggling is a crucial skill that needs to be mastered if you the buyer wants to get your money's worth for whatever it is you purchased. You cannot take anything at face value, you have to test the waters first by offering the price you are willing to pay in return. You start from there and build on it as the negotiation goes on.
I like to look at the Nigerian market as one big chart or better still an exchange that offers different commodities at different prices, with their various form of marketing just to get you to buy. Sellers are sales people with a sweet mouth. They will tell you whatever it is you want to hear just to get you to buy from them. Some even go ahead to build customer relationship with the customers as they buy things from their shop. This is why you get to see our mothers spend a lot of time at the market. They have engaged themselves in conversation with their sellers while they were buying things. All this is still the same anywhere there is a gathering of buyers and sellers. The sellers will do whatever it is they can to make the buyer confident in buying from them.
Although the Nigerian market is noisy and chaotic but it is a true example of what buying and selling looks like. This is why has buyer you need to have some techniques up your sleeve as well. The oldest in the book is the walk away technique. When negotiating the price of an item with the seller, act like you want to walk away and even sometimes, walk away. There is a tendency the seller will call you back and offer you a better price. But bear in mind, this technique can backfire when the seller does not call you back.
It's about understanding how the market works, because over time you get used to it and this is when you get to maneuver the Nigerian market in your own way.
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