Considering the context (and neighboring shops’ signs and names), the choice of this Amman mobile phone shop’s proprietor to name their cellphone shop after a brand of American muscle car is notable. In my weeks spent around Amman I don’t recall actually ever spying a Mustang on the streets, perhaps making the mystery/mythology powering this brand all the more potent for those “in the know”.

Note also the small “WhatsApp” icon in the corner of the sign, next to Zain’s (the country’s largest mobile network operator) logo. Just as some consumers choose Zain for its dominance of the market (the logic being that the largest company is also the most reliably high quality as well), others (usually in rural areas) approach mobile vendors less concerned with which network their phone is on than that their new phone will come equipped with WhatsApp. The size or capability of any provider’s physical infrastructure network pales in importance to what the customer’s analog/“real-life” social network uses to communicate (or take kibbeh or perfume orders).