Shopping on Madison Avenue

When I was working at the Indian Consulate I had three or four ties. On Madison Avenue, not Fifth Avenue, they had stores that sold ties. In one store, everything they marked at a particular price; but when you went to buy something, instead of lowering the price, they increased the price!

I said, “The price has to go down!”

The man in the store said, “No, no, no, no! We forgot to change it.” They found in me someone to fool, so the price went up instead of going down.

Another time I went to a store to buy a tape recorder. The shopkeeper was selling it for a particular price, but then he took away one part and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you — this is a separate thing. There is an extra charge.” First he was prepared to sell it at one price, and then he said he forgot to charge me for something. He took out some part — a battery or something. Twice he did it! Then I said, “I do not want to buy this!” At that time he came down to the original price, with everything included.

How helpless I looked. He took something out and said he had not charged me for that, so I had to pay for it. Then, when I said, “I am not going to buy it,” he put the part back in and said, “Take it, take it!”