Food
and Shops
Dinc Arslan
The sellers' first reaction to the customers:
TOTAL IGNORANCE
KIOSK
Dinc Arslan
She looked at me as if I have come with a bloody club in my hands to rob her
pathetic kiosk that served fried meatpies and other stuff that seriously harms
human digestive system. As she was counting a bunch of dirty and wrinkled 10
rouble notes, she didn't really pay attention to me or the two guys inj a near
beer-crisis. After 3 minutes of painful waiting (because of the smell coming
from the kiosk where they theoratically cook the food they serve and also live
there) she yelled "What do you want?". "A Red Ice tea" I replied while trying
to open the big refrigerator (that kiosks place on the street and put an
electronic lock that is activated from the inside...because the kiosks are so
small to stuff all the beers inside). She said "What? We don't have that
stuff" while I was pointing a Lipton Red (Ice) Tea with my finger to the dirty
and moist refrigerator glass door. After a couple of Russian slang that I
couldn't (hopefully) understand, she ordered me to open the door and take
whatever Red thing I wanted and show it to her so that she can tell the price.
The sellers' second reaction to the customers:
SCARE
THEM OFF WITH THE SOVIET FACE
When I took the Red tea, she became furious and replied back in anger "You
fool! It is not Red Ice tea...it is Red Tea!"...Normally I would throw that
bottle on the floor and move away but strangly I wanted to contribute to her
pathetic knowledge of her product portfolio."This is an Icea Tea...this is
tea, it is red and it is cold. That's why you keep it in the refrigerator"
(Shame on my improving Russian abilities that I can now engage in more
detailed conversations with Russians...I sense that the trouble is near). She
looked at me as if I was a brand manager at Unilever HQ since I knew such an
insiders' knowledge about Lipton Ice Tea's...but then she yelled the price
back "35 Roubles!" while she puffed from her cheap cigarette as if she wanted
to hide her hideous face behind the smokescreen (which I wanted her to succeed).
I threw 35 roubles from the narrow opening that the kiosk owners use to
communicate with their beloved customers and moved on with my usual mood after
being served in Russia.
Another satisfied customer
Dinc Arslan
A Kiosk in Moscow