MARKET STALLS : WSF SELLS IDEAS – AND GOODS Sara Hasan KARACHI - The vibrant, pulsating Sunday led many stall owners at the World Social Forum to erroneously assume that their sales would continue to rise. However, the scorching heat of the Monday afternoon brought them back to reality as a Minimelts ice-cream seller complained, "it’s three p.m. and the refrigerator’s temperature is still not suitable".

Women cooperatives at WSF

The weather alone is not to be blamed though, as a drinks seller complained about "frequent electricity breakdowns". However, the sales force the Forum is still trying its best with all sorts of sales pitches -- a mineral water seller assured a complaining customer that "the water is definitely cold from inside".

There are some 200 stalls in the WSF venue, according to Qamaral Hassan, the stall committee head. Of these, 25 are for food and drinks.

A wide variety of local food specialties were available, varying from Halim, Biryani, pani puris ,chat, sweetmeat etc. Most of these stall owners had come through NGOs or other organisations, coming because they thought the WSF was a perfect opportunity to promote the local culture.

But logistical problems spoiled some of their hopes. " Yesterday, five kilogrammes of our meat supplies got wasted because the security guard did not let my supplies in for about four hours," complained a food stall owner. "If this continues, I will not put up a stall next time."

Apart from food stalls, handicraft stalls have also been put up by NGOs like the Women’s Development Foundation, Awaz and the Entrepreneurial Women Development Institute. Women’s groups put up stalls from Hyderabad, Multan and Balochistan. The items on display were basically textiles, ranging from various types of embroidered fabric and bags, as well as wall hangings and shoes.

Shaheen, a disabled cloth seller from Hyderabad, quipped: "By now I have given about 250 visiting cards."

However, some sales have been fairly limited as Shugufta, who sellers handwoven cloth, complained, "people aren’t really buying and they (other sellers) quote really low prices".

Still, stall owners are hoping that customers pick up some items as the WSF closes in a few days. "We clean up our stall areas personally every morning and try to uplift our image amongst the world at an individual level," says Yasmeen. "As far as complaining is concerned, we just keep our complaints to ourselves until someone actually inquires."