In 1992 I joined an embroidery and textile tour to Bulgaria [...]
I was in this drapery shop in the middle of Sophia,
the capital. The hankies were under glass in a display counter. The
shop-assistant prised open the glass with a knife and drew one hankie out. I
asked to see the other, so she put the first one back before she took the
second one out, The same thing happened with the third one! It took
several minutes to explain that I wanted to buy all three. Someone told me
that they did not like selling stock as when it was gone, there might not be
more and they would be out of a job.
In '92, in any communist country (and Bulgsria was still such then), you had to be a child-molesting pervert, drunk 24hrs a day, and clocking a murder per week, to lose a job; according to Marx and Lenin everyone was entitled to a wage-earning employment, and we had *100%* employment rate throughout the "Democratic-peoples" (we had *few* entitlements, but some were iron-clad... <g>) So *that* was not the reason; she'd have been equally happy painting her toenails as selling. Being fed-up with always saying "no, not available" is more likely (even sales-clerks are human <g>) but I don't think *that* was the cause in your case, either...
As I read your account... you said you wanted to *see* the 3 pieces, not that you wanted to *buy* them. So, she *showed* you *each* piece you wanted to see... Having first removed anything (else) that might lead you into temptation, of course (theft is not something that's limited to the capitalist countries, despite the propaganda)... Very simple <g>.
I well remember the day my Mother decided to buy a (Polish, and therefore superiour, naturally <g>) pair of gloves for my DH; *never* was more than one pair presented for him to try on; his desire to look, *again*, at a pair he'd looked at previously and decided *not* to "snap up", was considered "freakish in the extreme" attitude, bordering on bourgeis/capiutalist behaviour. :)
Of the 5 of us... my Mama and the clerk were both fed up with DH's indecision. DH was appalled to be treated as a potential thief (he's not stupid; he *knew* what was going on). Danek (then 6) was bored silly -- the gloves weren't gonna be his, after all the hoopla. I was the only one who was *amused*, and everyone hated me (par for the course; a twisted *spine* gains sympathy, twisted *sense of humour* draws hate; I have both, so I know)...
Apologies for putting all this on lace rather than chat even though I know Angela reads both. Sometimes, I think that the "younger folk" (and/or US-Americans <g>) will profit from seeing a different point of view...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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