Over the past few days those willing to buy chicken eggs have been queuing up starting from 4 a.m in front of the eastern gates to Ashgabat market of Bereketli located in the residential district Parakhat-7.
The gates open at 6 a.m.and the sale starts at the same time.Eggs are sold with a restriction of 11 pieces per person at the price of 5 manats.
It is most likely that this is done to make it easier for shop assistants to give change to customers.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that as people rush to get to the stalls from the gates, the line turns into a crowd with people yelling and arguing. Eggs sell out quickly and not everybody manages to buy them.
A few minutes before that one can spot people exiting the southern gates of the market with one or two cases of eggs with 30 pieces in each.
These are relatives or acquaintances of shop assistants of state-run stores.These people do not have to stand in the queue and no restriction of 11 pieces applies to them.
The vendors explain the early start of the sale by the fact that “the higher-ranking supervisors should not see the queues, crowds and fighting in the queue”. Shop assistants are also reluctant to get up at 4 a.m. to open the shop and start the sale but they have no other solution.
A similar situation is being observed with regard to the sale of local poultry at state prices. Imported chicken meat (drumsticks) has not been recently available.