Business in Alaba International Market || An Overview

Hello fellow givers, my name is jesus-son and here I come with an interesting write-up on the general overview of the famous Alaba International market. For the interest of persons here who do not know about the famous Maeket in Nigeria I will begin with a description of the market.

_{A Section of the Alaba Market}
First of all, it is just a market where people come to buy and sell and carry out some services for the purpose of making money. It is a unique market in that, variety of things are found there. It is rare to find anything in Alaba Market and not get it. It is even believed that human parts are sold there, hehe 🙄🙄 (no be me talk am o). You can get quality products as well as inferior ones that are well packaged like original. In Alaba Market, if you really want to get a quality product, you need to go with someone who is very knowledgeable about the runnings there else you could get in touch with a person who would give you a fake product at the price of an original one. However, one may be lucky to experience a devout man who would be benevolent to tell him the truth about the business there. The rate of deceit there is very high and so people get scared to go and buy expensive stuffs there so as not to end up getting the fake ones.

Most times the products that are fake are produced by some persons right in the market who have little idea of how to make an imitation of an original one. For instance, there is a place called #Obosi plaza and mostly, it is where the electrical people stay. They can take the cover of an spoilt original electrical appliance and produce an inferior one and put inside and anyone buying would think he has bought an original. It would dawn on the person when he takes it home and it works only for a day or two and get damaged. This happens to products like Televisions, phone batteries and infact batteries generally, chargers, etc.

However, the Alaba International Market is a place where many boys have risen to be men. A lot of young men go into trade learning and after some time, they are settled by their masters and they go on to establish their own independent business. Some make it richly, some struggle to survive amd some never survive. It depends on one's grace and luck and also hardwork.

_{A Maket for the strong}
In Alaba International Market, there are producers, wholesalers, retailers and also consumers. Therefore, we have investors who make wholesale payment for a large volume of goods. Some others make retail payments also for a large volume of goods but that are with less value.

The market is structured in an orderly manner such that one can easily locate a place for the sale of a given kind of goods. By implication, all those dealing with electronics have a given place you can see most of them. Although you can come across others in some other places but very scanty. Majority of people selling a given product stay together in a given area. The only issue in this arrangement is that the level of competition is high. But then it helps one to be easily seen when one is among his colleagues in a given plaza or line.

There are banks also where people make transactions. It is a conducive place for banking since there are a lots of businesses there so people can come in and make deposits or withdrawals at ease without having to go too far.

In a subtle way, I will like to relate my experiences in Alaba Market. Like i said earlier, there are good, bad and very bad people there, hehe. In Nigeria, we often say *shine your eye if you dey go Alaba o *, hehe. This means you should very careful going to Alaba any time. The truth is that once they notice you are not familiar with the market, guys will come around and pretend to be nice and dupe you very well, hehe.

Sharing my experiences with you, I will start with the day I was passing and I saw a group gathered and playing a Whot game. They would cover three cards and two people will deposit any amount beginning from #500 Naira and then they would attempt to open a particular card and if you are lucky, you win double of the money you deposited. I was captivated by how much was won and then looking at me, they saw that I was in fantasy so they asked me to open any card without paying and as I was to open one, they held my hand and told me that i had won and asked me to give them #500 Naira and collect #1000 Naira.

Initially I was reluctant but upon pressure from them, I gave them but instead of giving me #1000 Naira, they told me to open another card again and then I knew they were scammers, I cried out and asked them to give back my money and thank God I was repaid.

There are indeed many experiences that if I relate all, this post would be too long, however, I don't intend to make this a too long post. Therefore, I will relate only a few.

Another incidence happened few months ago. There is a place in the Market where you can swap an old phone with another one. So I took my phone there and I was asked to give pay #5000 to get a better phone. I did, but after collecting the phone, I was glad I had a better phone but upon reaching another shop, I was told that the one I gave out was better. I went there and I was told there is no refunding and infact, the phone cannot be changed. I was bittered, but there was nothing I could do. There was nothing to certify that I even bought a phone there because no receipt was issued. So I left sorrowfully, hehe.

Another, time I went to repair a piano. The repairer charged #6000 for the repair but after repair, the piano was playing backward when I got home. I took it back for him to correct it. And after doing it, he mentioned some technical names that was wrong with the piano and asked me to pay #5000 Naira again. But I refused and asked him to return it back to how it was and let me go. But he let me go, without doing so and without paying him again.
By implication, there was no technical issue with it. It was just a misplacement of the panel. Well, these experiences have shaped my life and I am glad.

I am glad you came to relate with my entry today. God bless you.