EGYPT: Have scooter, will deliver
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They buzz through the night like fireflies, legions of young men delivering Big Macs, pizzas, subs, groceries, flowers, pharmaceuticals, holy books, stockings, incense and anything else that can fit into the boxes teetering on the rear of their motor scooters. Delivery guys are common in many countries, but in Cairo they’re everywhere, waiting to be dispatched from fast-food restaurants and dry cleaners. They are a cross between the ‘Wild Bunch’ and schoolboys in helmets. They have a limited amount of change in their pockets and an uncanny ability to find streets with no names. They skitter, squeal, skid and slide, racing on sidewalks and zipping across bridges that span highways and train tracks. They will deliver a single ice cream cone, no mean feat in a nation that’s mostly desert.
They are so ubiquitous and relied upon that anyone preferring to venture to the supermarket to buy and haul home groceries on his own is looked upon by cashiers as possibly being addled. One clerk recently told a customer: ‘Why don’t you phone it in next time? We have people who will come.’
— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
