This might sound a simple and small thing, but is quite symptomatic on how a free market mechanism punishes the bad trader, and at the same time how a a cartelised market is a bad place to shop.

A week back I had gone to the vegetable market, and at one shop there was good potatoes - the vegetable vendor said it was Rs 12 per kg - I said ok. So, I selected some of the good ones - the vegetable vendor mixed it up with some of the small and not so good potatoes - and rudely said that I will have to take the mixed one - and I could not be selective. I simply said keep all your potatoes - I dont want it from you. Needless to say - I didn’t buy anything from his shop.

A few days later, when I went to the vegetable market - the same potato vendor seemed to be a chastened guy. He not only charged the market price of Rs. 10 per kg, but was also willing to help choose the potatoes - and there was no mixing or any rudeness.

It seemed quite clear that he had been punished by the forces of free market, where the buyers would prefer to buy from another vendor rather than buy it from someone who indulges in unethical practices. And as he realised that people were prefering to buy from others rather than him, he was forced to adopt better trading practices.

Another example relates to unethical market practices and cartelisation.

In India during the winter times, one can find the Tibetans who come down to the plains to sell woolen garments. The uninitiated still thinks that it is the garments that the Tibetans make and sell them during winter. In reality, these are the garments that are made by the garment factories mostly in Ludhiana and elsewhere in Punjab and sold by displaced Tibetans, and also other people who are not Tibetans. Usually, there used to be heavy bargaining in the previous times, where one could get even a thing that was quoted at Rs. 300 for Rs. 100 - without any loss to the seller.

This time round at Asansol, we went to the Tibetan Potala Market, searching for a Jacket. At one of the shops there seemed to be a good jacket design - however its colour was black. The price being Rs. 270/-. Doing the rounds we found at another stall, that same jacket in another colour, but the price quoted was Rs. 290/-. The stall owner said that the prices are fixed and there can be no bargaining. I said that I am not bargaining, but you should not try to overcharge me. He said that show me where you are getting that same jacket for 270, and he would give me that jacket for free!!! I said that I dont want that for free, but for 270, and indicated the stall where the same jacket was being sold for 270. That guy went there and made a scene speaking in their own Tibetan language, that ultimately the original stall owner who was selling that jacket for 270, said that there was a mistake of tagging, and the price is 290!!! That same jacket in some other stall was being sold for 315/-. All that for unionism and fixed pricing.

While unioninsm is not bad to protect ones interest or to prevent price undercutting, it is equally bad for the buyer if such group create a cartel and overcharge price from the buyer. We should not patronise such shops nor buy from such shops. It is much better to go to a standard shop and buy something against a regular bill - rather than do cash purchase against fancied prices and unethical trade practices from such places.

I would rather say - protect the interest of the worker who works in the factories rather than pay whimsical price (read commission) to the fancies of middlemen - it holds good whether it be the potala stall owner or whether any other MNC who try to overcharge their customers. Needless to say, I didn’t buy that jacket, even though its design seemed good.

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