Discount shops attracting crowds

Two thousand five hundred – for Mom Dalin, this is more than just a random number or the price of a coffee, it is her way of making a living. The 55-year-old sits at a small desk in her son’s shop on Sihanouk Boulevard, within sight of the Independence Monument, and asks a customer to pay for a pair of Angry Birds underpants, sunglasses and a pencil. She rings up a bill of less than $2. Dalin works in a so-called 2,500 Riel retail shop, where everything – from cosmetics to kitchenware to children clothes – costs, well, you get the idea. She says the cheap price tag attracts hundreds of customers every day. … Researchers from the International Labour Organization  in Geneva estimate that in 2004, about 642,000 or 9.8 per cent of all Cambodian workers were middle class and above, meaning they were living on $4 or more a day. That figure  increased to 1.2 million or 16.1 per cent in 2008 and is projected to rise to 2.8 million or 31.6 per cent by 2017. … No hard figures are available of how many 2,500 riel shops exist in Phnom Penh. But Dalin, who sold fried rice, noodles and ice-cream at a food stall in Dreamland before, estimates there are about 100 of them in the city. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062066378/Business/discount-shops-attracting-crowds.html