Of Unwritten Principles

A lesson learnt from the market place

Every social setting is guided by some set of laws, rules or principles, written or unwritten.

After a short walk of about 10 minutes from the tricycle park nearest to Plateau Riders, a major bus park in Jos, under the scorching heat radiating from the sun, I arrived the book store feeling tired. I would've appreciated a seat. But who cares about my arrival in a setting where many folks are clustered plus I didn't alight from a classy vehicle?

I was at the market to run a survey for a purchase. My Uncle, a teacher in an elementary school, far from Jos, reached for my assistance since he was not in the city. The books are not accessible where he resides. He had just a limited time to get the books for usage. Thank God for telecommunications; a phone call and a chat was enough to pass the message across.

Image source: The Book Sellers Limited 

The book store was busy and occupied; humans and books competing for the available space in the bookstore and around its premises. Reaching for the entrance implied scaling over piles of books littered in the area foregrounding the entrance of the store. It was trouble distinguishing workers from customers. If the workers wore uniforms, it would've been better.

I asked two folks, one after the other, if they were workers. They were. I asked if they had the books I came for. They had them. Each one directed to the next person; the first said, 'meet that lady over there'. 'Meet my boss', the lady said in response to my question, pointing to her boss, a man dressed in plain trousers and an ash polo shirt.

'Good afternoon sir. Please do you have X, Y, and Z books?' I asked.

'Yes', he responded reluctantly wearing a dull countenance.

'How much is the cost?'

He reeled out the prices hesitantly. While he did, I wondered if my patronage adds nothing to his profit. His unwillingness to put up with my need for clarification made me stay longer than intended. Sadly, no purchase was made; I had to check in the next store based on my Uncle's request via a phone call.

Image source: The Book Sellers Limited

The next book store was just a 3-minute walk from the first. This store was more spacious in length than the first. It also had books littered in the area foregrounding the entrance, most of them enclosed in brown cartons. It had a population of about half the number in the first. Workers could easily be identified; for they were the only few who walked past the demarcation created by a pile of books almost halfway into the store. However, they also had no uniforms on.

A similar sequence played out as in the first book store. I met the store owner, following the directions provided by the second worker I had an interface with. The store owner was dressed in plain black trousers and a checked blue and white shirt. His chin, covered in a seeming even mixture of black and grey beards. His low cut helped sustain the too serious countenance he bore.

I tendered my enquiries after a brief exchange of pleasantries. He responded more politely which almost silenced me from asking for a discount since I was to make a bulk purchase.

Unable to hold my thoughts, I spoke inquisitively: 'Sir, this place is much better. In the other store, for most of the time, I spoke to the air. All the workers seemed unwilling to respond to me'.

'You know', he began while unboxing the books before him, 'some people don't like to say their prices, especially if they suspect the customer will make no purchase. They feel such a customer will go about comparing prices with that of other stores before making a purchase'.

His response felt like revelation to me. It drowned every hard feelings I had against the first store owner. (Part of my thought process was to discourage any potential customer that will consider his store based on my recommendation. An acquaintance purchased a notebook from there last week based on my recommendation. Whatever made me think of myself as "maven" as described in Gladwell's The Tipping Point.)

I apologized for making him go against the unwritten principle. He stated that it wasn't a problem at all. 'It is more personal than a general rule', he explained further.

We reached a resolve with my Uncle over the phone. The purchase had to be rescheduled to when the required funds landed in my bank account. I tendered a hearty apology. We parted on amicable terms. Though I made no promises, I was convinced to return considering also that the prices of the latter was more appealing than the former.

The reluctance of the first book store owner was due to the unwritten principle described by the second book store owner. That it wasn't written did not imply non-compliance. It organised the operation in the market. So is the case with other social settings.

Note: As a fundamental rule, when you go into a place be not mindless about the operations in place. It could be detrimental more than you can imagine.