Every time I go to the market to buy one thing or the other, no matter how hard I try to bargain price, I always end up feeling bad because here in Nigeria, people selling in the markets would claim to be God fearing, but with the way they cheat people any chance they get, they are equivalent to armed robbers.
When I say Nigeria needs a price cap badly I ain't exaggerating. I mean, I don't have any bad intentions, and I say this in a good way, but it's kinda suspicious how everyone in Nigeria wants to become a business owner. Even children. And you can't blame them because you see some of them with business expanding like they are plucking investments from a money tree somewhere.
There is no money tree! And no matter the name they call it, street smart, wise, cunning, business brain—in simple words, it is called theft.
The one I experienced last week was traumatizing, far worse than when I went to the market to purchase materials so my sister could sew my hospital school posting uniform, where a woman who claimed to be a pastor almost convinced me to buy thread worth 100 naira each for 200 naira, claiming she was helping me by selling at a price with very little gain, only for me to buy it for 100 naira in the next store.
I just recovered from that one, and three weeks later, my sister needed me to buy something from the market for her.
I honestly didn't want to, and I told her my reason was that going to the market just puts my head in a dark place.
But I had no choice because I was the only one available to help her, and it was the least I could do after she tailored four scrubs for me for free.
Even before I left for the market, I was reluctant, but I told myself it wasn't too deep and gathered up some strength.
The first thing I got was hair gel, and my sister budgeted 6000 naira. The guy selling it said it was 7500, and after everything, he settled for 5500. Can you believe this boy brought me the gel, and before I paid him, I found the price tag under it, and it was 3500. I went to his madam when he was distracted and confirmed it was 3500 and made the payment to her. By the time he realized it was too late.
The next thing I went for was a mini pressing iron. My sister budgeted 13k for it. Most things I bought that day, she had already budgeted so I wouldn't stress myself pricing too much. I spent minutes at the appliance store bargaining 500 naira on top of the 12k I offered the man I had for the iron. But the man stood his ground.
I called my sister and told her I was going to find another place. I walked away in search of another store for the iron but I didn't find any.
The sun was already telling me to go back when my sister called and told me not to stress myself and go back to the man.
I got everything and went to the park to waybill it to her. I got there and saw a store with that exact pressing iron I got. And I just decided to check the price. And guess what? It was 7500 without pricing. Which means with that 12500, the man could buy two of the iron.
I told my sister, and she just laughed it off and said there is nothing we can do about it since we can't find out the real price they bought it from the manufacturer or whoever they got it from.
In my opinion and from my experience, inflation of prices should be strictly regulated, and to a certain point, it should be illegal.