Paper short abstract:

Since the privatization of retail commerce in 1989, many Romanians have started buying consumer goods without paying on the spot. Particularly in rural areas, the practice is so familiar that people who pay cash for consumer goods are treated with suspicion. The paper discusses indebtedness in retail settings, specifically their deceptive side.

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the unfolding of social relations of debt and duty in Romanian retail settings. Since the privatization of retail commerce in 1989, large numbers of people have started buying consumer goods without paying on the spot; this occurs in the absence of any legal provisions. They refer to this practice using the vocabulary of "debt" (datorie): "selling on debt" and "buying on debt." Debt relations are marked by the absence of interest, security, witnesses, formal agreements, evident means of sanctioning defaulters, as well as an elastic duration of repayment. The contrast to formal bank transactions - credit and debit relations - is striking. This paper refers to the deceptive side of indebtedness and its implications with respect to local notions of person and morality. I address the following questions: How is it that what counts for some Romanian analysts as a "credit transaction" is achieved and recognized as a "debt/duty relation" by participants in local settings? What kinds of conversions between debt issues and duty issues are achieved in practice? How does one know whom to trust and whom not? How does one get to be sure somebody will not resort to deceit under any circumstances? How does one start to "feel" she or he is deceived? How do some people manage to repeatedly deceive others, with no apparent consequences? Or, more intriguingly, how do people find it impossible to disentangle themselves from debt and duty relations, even if they realize they are being deceived?