Shopping without borders
By Claude Salhani
Senior editor of the English service of Trend Agency
An indication of how successful a country is likely to function
in the world of free trade and commerce may be found in the ease or
difficulty in that country's bureaucracy. And what better measure
of any country's bureaucracy than dealing with the purgatory of
most bureaucracies, typically a country's customs and postal
systems.
Maybe it is just the way many people have been programmed to think
about certain countries under certain circumstances. We expect the
Swiss to provide good banking, and honest policemen; we expect the
French to provide excellent chefs (Jean-Christophe Novelli, Paul
Bocuse, Raymond Blanc) and stylish clothes (Pierre Balmain,
Christian Dior, Ted Lapidus, Daniel Hechter) and we expect Italians
to give us great cars (Lamborghini, Mazeratti), and lousy
politicians.
But what can a foreigner expect in a former Soviet socialist
republic in the Caucasus? A Soviet-styled bureaucratic nightmare
compounded by Levantine corruption?
In Azerbaijan nothing could be further away from the truth. What
one finds in Azerbaijan is the minimum amount of bureaucracy with
very little paperwork, efficiency compiled with honesty and a
business sense, that while operationally differs from what one may
be accustomed to in the West, still works well, at least where the
customs and postal services are concerned.
This reporter always wanted to own a drum set but never did, due to
a) cost, b) space, and/or c) noise that is associated with the
playing of drums.
Some years ago someone had the brilliant idea to develop electronic
drums. Electronic drums produce sounds equal, if not superior to,
conventional drums. They plug into either an amplifier or if you
want to keep the neighbors content, into a headset, where only the
person wearing the headset can hear the actual drums. Someone in
the same room will hear a dull muffled sound of the drumsticks
hitting thick rubber. The neighbors will not even know you have
drums.
That took care of b and c, the size and noise issues. There was
still the high price tag. However, as modern technology became more
current and computers became cheaper and smaller, and when labor
was outsourced to cheap Asian labor, the price of electronics
decreased sharply.
Last week this reporter finally caved-in to his life-long urge and
went shopping for a set of electronic drums in Baku. A quick search
on the Internet revealed that a music store in central Baku carried
that item. When asked to try out the drums, the music store refused
to open the box saying the item could be seen on the Internet.
Somewhat reluctant to dish out 800 manats ($1,129) without seeing
the item first, I went home and did turn to the Internet. I was
taken to another web site, this one in Germany, where the very same
item was being sold at less than half the price. A quick phone call
to the music store in Germany confirmed that delivery in Baku was
not a problem and would take 10 to 12 business days. Having waited
almost a life time, waiting another 10-12 days to save more that
$500 was acceptable.
A week later I received a phone call from someone who simply said
"Posta." The way this works is that the seller ships via DHL
courier service, which then transfers the goods to the Azerbaijani
postal service. They then deliver it to the post office closest to
your home.
Since I am a newly arrived foreigner unable to communicate in the
local language, the clerk at the post office was kind enough to
type the amount I owed into a calculator. She typed 36, so I handed
her 36 manats. She smiled, returning most of the money. She wanted
3 manats 60 kopecks.
I know of many other countries where the clerk would have pocketed
the difference.
This exercise in fact proves that the local market now faces direct
competition from other regions of the world. Azerbaijan is now part
of a world trading zone where local businesses must adjust their
prices to be competitive with those available online.
This is the new reality of global shopping. And as countries of the
region join to create the new Eurasian landmass, the market will
expand even further, creating new horizons.
This is where the future becomes the lucrative present. And the
present can already be found in the opening chapters of the
region's future history books.
This is shopping without borders.