Description

When we hear elder people talk about cheap prices in the old days, sometimes we think they were exaggerating. But when we understand how people used to sell and buy in those days, we understand why prices were that way.

The market was the Qaisariah (shops grouped in one place). Customers bought from shops’ owners, whom used to buy their merchandise directly from the suppliers and sold them to the customers without any intermediaries. One or few workers used to help the shop owner and that’s it. Accordingly, there were no significant costs/overheads above the price of the goods. This concept remained until the intermediaries, like wholesale shops, grocery stores, and pharmacies appeared between the supplier and the customer, which raised prices due to their higher operational costs costs such as multi stores’ rents, transportation, employment and so on.