Iran's bazaar merchants squeezed as rial hits record low

<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/">Iran's</a> bazaar shopkeepers are feeling the pinch from a collapsing currency, weaker consumer demand and rising costs, as a new round of US sanctions threatens to deepen an <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/08/25/petrol-queues-deepen-across-iran-as-fuel-shortages-hit-tehran/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/08/25/petrol-queues-deepen-across-iran-as-fuel-shortages-hit-tehran/">economic crisis</a>. At Tehran's Grand Bazaar, a shopkeeper shared a video shot as he walked through unusually quiet lanes, saying there were hardly any customers even ahead of the new school year, when families would normally be buying stationery, clothing and other necessities. “With the dollar at <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2026/08/24/irans-currency-hits-record-low-as-us-prepares-to-hit-tehran-with-economic-offensive/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2026/08/24/irans-currency-hits-record-low-as-us-prepares-to-hit-tehran-with-economic-offensive/">2,000,000</a> rials, what kind of situation is this?” he said, describing how merchants are forced to cut margins to attract customers. “This isn't even about making sales any more. It's about being able to keep the business going.” Traders across Iran face the same dilemma, as prices surge while household purchasing power deteriorates, leaving them caught between raising prices to cover their own costs and keeping prices low enough so that customers can still afford to buy. Some are struggling with rents. Merchants in Tehran have said businesses are increasingly being forced to give up their shops because they can no longer cover the costs. “Rents for shops in Tehran's Grand Bazaar have increased dramatically,” one of them said in a video showing shuttered or empty shopfronts. The pressure is also being felt outside the capital. In a video from Shiraz, a shopkeeper described how his monthly rent had jumped to 320 million rials ($160) from 180 million rials after the currency slumped. “You [the authorities] know we're tired. This is the end of the road. Really, in my view, it can't continue,” he said in the clip published on Wednesday by <i>Hamvatan</i>, an Iranian media outlet that describes itself as independent. Shopkeepers in the capital have been warning that imported goods could become substantially more expensive if sanctions disrupt cargo routes. In Bandar Abbas, a port city on the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2026/08/24/deadly-version-of-the-battleships-game-is-playing-out-in-hormuz-who-will-win/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2026/08/24/deadly-version-of-the-battleships-game-is-playing-out-in-hormuz-who-will-win/">Strait of Hormuz</a>, merchants similarly blamed expanded US sanctions for worsening economic hardship, while insisting Iran would find ways around the pressure. One trader admitted that sanctions hurt and the plunging rial affects daily life, but said Iranians had long experience circumventing sanctions. Another merchant compared Washington's pressure to someone telling a neighbour that they were no longer allowed to eat what they wanted. “America is speaking like a bully,” he told Reuters, rejecting what he described as Washington’s attempt to dictate Iran's economic choices. The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/2025/08/11/iran-approves-plan-to-remove-four-zeroes-from-national-currency/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/2025/08/11/iran-approves-plan-to-remove-four-zeroes-from-national-currency/">rial</a>, which has been in free fall, hit an all-time low of more than two million against the US dollar on Monday, according to Bonbast.com, which monitors unofficial exchange rates. That compares with 1.53 million rials in March, shortly after the war broke out. The depreciation has pushed up the cost of imported goods while simultaneously eroding consumers’ ability to pay for them. The latest US measures, announced on <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/08/24/iran-sanctions-d-day-bessent/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/08/24/iran-sanctions-d-day-bessent/">Monday</a>, expanded sanctions to include additional individuals, companies and vessels linked to Iran and threatened secondary sanctions against countries and businesses continuing to trade with Iran. They also target sectors including gold, shipping, aviation and technology. For bazaar merchants, however, sanctions are only one part of the problem. Years of inflation, currency depreciation and falling living standards, also blamed on economic mismanagement, have produced a vicious cycle, with people buying less, merchants cutting profits and businesses becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.