The Economy Of Essaouira

It's kind of fun watching the economy of Essaouira. You can see it better than in most places because it's smaller and because all deliveries to stores are on carts because of the ban of most motor vehicles in the medina (except the garbage trucks and National Office de Electricité). There are two sources of energy--butane and electricity. Butane is delivered in large bottles-about 2.5 feet high and maybe a little over a foot in diameter. Standing, 24 fit on a cart. But they also pile them up into pyramids. The butane man delivers to the restaurants since most of the ovens and stoves in the city function on gas. You also see the delivery of fruits and vegetables. Especially obvious are the watermelon deliveries since watermelons are so big. Sadly, I don't know how to tell a good watermelon from a bad. We bought 2 so far (25 dh and 30 dh) and the first one was pretty good, but the second wasn't very good. I saw a guy with a huge pile of coins. Perhaps he provides liquidity to the markets. The store people rely on their neighbors. When I got the second watermelon, the store man needed to borrow the 1.0 kg weights from the olive vendor to weigh the watermelon. I wonder what sort of turnover the stores have. Elena bought some scarfs and was originally quoted 60 dh for 1 scarf. She told the woman, truthfully, that we had paid 80 dh for 2 at another store. The woman was unhappy to let them go at that price, but she did. I think the movement is more important than the margin--they'll forgo the sweet margin to at least make the sale.

Over the past three days, I've bought 3 CDs of the Orchestre National de Barbès. They seem to be wrapped as if they are legal and I certainly hope they are, but the jewel cases seem old, the cover art is one sided and seemingly incomplete, and the tracks aren't labeled on the CD itself--just Track 01, Track 02, etc. I suppose it's just the way they make CDs in Morocco. I hope the ONB is getting royalties from my purchases (I paid 40 dh for Poulina, 20 dh for Alik, and 30 dh for Les Plus Belles Voix--all at different stores).

The stores, despite their size, have a lot of variety. Elena woke me up laughing. She had forgotten to get coffee and wanted to go out get some. I aked her where sho could expect to find coffee. She said the little neighborhood booth. She was laughing because she was trying to say that they have the same selection as Superstore (a sort of Canadian Super-Target) in their little booth.