Where a shopping basket has a whole different look and function

Shopping baskets

With the lean towards being green, many stores have produced organic, re-usable, long-life, or even eternal shopping bags. It might be interesting for you to be introduced to a method of shopping in Egypt that many people do not know about. It is the re-usable basket, organic, hand-made, and used in a unique way.

Door to door delivery

In Egypt today, you can order delivery of almost everything:
• from cup cakes to headache tablets
• pizza to shampoo
• hamburgers to diapers
All you have to do, is pick up the phone, phone whichever shop, stall, restaurant, market, shop you like, and place your order. Many of them are now online, and orders can be placed without even speaking to anyone! The order is then taken and the delivery man is despatched. He will arrive either on foot, or bicycle, motorbike, car or van.

Lower the basket

But in many apartment building there are no elevators (lifts) or they may not work! Sometimes, people do not like to walk down all the steps and then back up again laden with groceries. In addition, there are many cart shops (shops on wheels), that pass by on the streets below. There is not enough time to dress appropriately, go all the way down to the street level, and make a purchase before the shop has moved on. So a novel idea became the norm. This is a basket with a rope, lowered down the outside wall of the apartment, to the delivery man / cart shop waiting below.

Usually this basket is made of reeds, or leaves, woven locally, or sometimes cheaply imported. Recently however, very fashionable baskets have appeared on the scene:
• brightly coloured
• some with smiley faces
• some covered in fluffy fabric
• some with bling (shiny jewels)
• and for the new bride, some covered in gold and silver fabric

When I recently asked a friend of mine what was her opinion of these baskets, she vehemently replied that:
‘It is important/ vital/ necessary that EVERY house has one!’
Many apartment blocks have a small grocery or shop on the ground floor, or basement of the buildings, and it is easy to phone or call to the sellers on the street, alerting them that you wish to purchase some of their wares!

Down it goes

Once the order is made, the person upstairs will keep an eye out on the street to see when the purchases are ready to be hauled up. The empty basket will be lowered (some even from as high as 7 floors up) with the required amount of money. The delivery man / shop assistant will place the ordered goods into the basket, along with the change (unless he gets to keep this as a tip!). This basket will then be pulled up by the lady of the house, which can take a while depending on which floor she lives.

Once the transaction is complete, the door/window will then be closed, the purchases unpacked and either the cooking started, the baby cleaned, the headache soothed or the cakes consumed.

Can you spot one?

So when you come and visit, take some time to glance upwards occasionally and see if you can spot one of the fancy baskets (or their older counterparts) being lowered or pulled back up the outside of an apartment building. It is a unique and interesting transaction to observe. If you like the idea, walk down a local market and try and buy one of the newest, shiniest, and fanciest ones for yourself!