I had brought 2 pairs of jeans with me on this trip which I did not really need. They added unwanted weight to my pack. I am by western standards a short person, so I can never find my size in jeans. To have the jeans altered in the USA costs me almost half of what I paid for them! (For example: $20 to alter/hem a $45 pair of jeans). In addition I usually end up having to wait 1 week to get my pants returned from the tailor. After several years of this, I had resorted to just rolling up the bottoms of the pant legs, more out of frustration than anything else.
I was hoping to find a cheap tailor somewhere along my trip to hem my pants. I had no idea what it would cost. After my first couple of days in Kyrgyzstan, my hopes dimmed and I thought I had unnecessarily brought the pants with me.
On the day of our trip into Nookat, I happened to be wearing one pair of those jeans. We by chance happened to walk by a tailor in the bazaar, and I mentioned to Miraj that if we ever came back I would like to get my pants hemmed. To my surprise he said “We can do it now!” I was confused as I thought I would have to leave the pants there. Miraj told me they could do it on the spot while I waited behind a curtain.
We went to a different tailor (I think a friend of Miraj’s ) to do the job. I had to inconvenience Gary and Balot who waited while the pants were hemmed. It took 15 minutes and the price was a grand total of 50 Kgs or $0.70!!!! That is 70 cents!! I was in a mixture of disbelief but also happiness. I expressed my gratitude to the lady tailor and through Miraj explained my difficulties with alterations back in the USA. It was an interesting and educational experience for us both 🙂 My happiness with (for her) such a routine task also amused her.
I asked Miraj to take the video while I waited behind the curtain:
Later, I would get my second pair of pants hemmed in Osh City for double the price. It was understandable and still a bargain at $1.40. I am wearing one of those pairs of jeans as I write this blog post.
So that’s our economics lesson of the day: one of supply vs demand, and also how to save money on alterations by buying a several hundred dollar plane ticket to a developing nation.
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-The Rover
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