Ahh Dakar. There is so much about you that is bewilderingly unfamiliar to me. And then there are moments that catch me unawares, and suddenly I am enveloped in a blanket of strange familiarity….
Oh yes, glorious Adventure Shopping indeed.
What the Hell is Megan talking about?
Well, if you’re fortunate to be from my neck of the woods, you already know about the Job Lot. It’s a fantastic mecca of retail oddities that barely err on the side of utility, and thus compel you to plunk down small bills in exchange for questionable purchases. Its secret to commercial longevity, I think, lies in an irresistible blend of dirt cheap prices and barely-expired Sell By dates. You never know what you are going to get when you wander inside, but you can bet you’ll exit with something neat (if not altogether useless) in your plastic bag.
Okay, now that I have spent far too much energy publicizing a dilapidated store that really shouldn’t make me so nostalgic, I give you the reason for this entry:
Dakar has it’s own Job Lot!
Okay, maybe not an actual Job Lot (after all, we are 3,714 miles from Providence), but I wandered into an unknown store today in search of tortillas for tomorrow’s Mexican night. I’d never visited this place, but I’ve run by it many times while out on the corniche. It’s right after the Malian embassy. As soon as I stepped inside, something felt oddly familiar. It wasn’t until I was a good 75% of the way through the store, weaving around dusty shelves (and filing my basket up of course), that it suddenly dawned on me where I was…..
Tell me Job Lot junkies, is this not the Lebanese-owned version of our own discontinued item paradise?
These aren’t expired, but I wanted to show you some of the local labeling in this country. I think it’s a common cost-cutting measure, but rather than print different labels displaying the proper contents and quantities, they manually write over the packaging. In this case you have a label for 100g of cashew powder- which apparently didn’t sell so well and they still wanted to use the labels…I bought them today anyways.
This is bouye powder (it comes from the baobab tree and is used to make a local juice). Even though they couldn’t manage to find a properly sized plastic bag that complies with their professionally-printed labels, they were at least conscientious enough to write over the preparation instructions. But still…kinda ghetto, Senegal….
Why yes, I was looking for a butterfly net to go with this bottle of pomegranate molasses….
Closeouts! Overstocks! What do you suddenly need? You can bet that it’s buried in here somewhere…
Sorry Mr. Walking Barnes & Noble, your wares are no longer tempting to me.
I should stop now. If I’m not careful, next I’ll be extolling the virtues of the Christmas Tree Shop. I love that place too- but somehow I don’t think that I’ll be finding its sister store over here any time soon. But you never know….