Shopping

Reasons I enjoy shopping in Mexico
or
Reasons the weak peso is wiping out all my dinero

1. The stores play good music. By that I mean ‘90s flashbacks like Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears, or popular Mexican music that’s almost always bouncy and catchy. I bought a black-market CD of some current hits and I’m working on understanding what the choruses mean. It’s one of my favorite things to do at night when I’m at home without internet access or any desire to do homework.

2. Stores are everywhere. I can pop into one if I see a large crowed of people coming towards me on the sidewalk and am afraid I’ll get pushed into traffic (not kidding). It’s easy to breeze through one because they’re mostly little stores, not huge chains. There are certainly some U.S. chains in Xalapa, like Wal-Mart and Sears. There are several Mexican chains too, and, as Boehm has pointed out to me, several of them are actually owned by Wal-Mart or other U.S. corporations. But what I’m talking about with love here is the little privately-owned book stores or clothing tiendas. Within a two-block radius of my house I would guess that there are at least 30. I keep telling myself that I can buy books in Spanish back in the U.S. and it doesn’t make sense to stuff half a bookstore into my suitcase for the trip home.

3. The clothes are fun. I guess they’re just more my type. I likes me some bright colors and short skirts. Actually, the Mexican and U.S. styles are pretty similar, really. Maybe it just goes back to that there are more clothing stores and more selection in my neighborhood that I’m used to.

4. The store clerks are always mopping the floors. Seriously, store floors are not this clean in the U.S. When I walk down the street while stores are closing (around 8 generally), sudsy water burps up onto the sidewalk from the stores in tremendous quantity. Watching people slosh mops across tile doesn’t really get me. Now that I think about it, maybe I just like it so much because the salespeople don’t immediately attack me and ask if they can help me like a lot of them back home. Less pressure.

5. I can go alone without feeling desperate. The salespeople don’t harass me or follow me around the place, and checking out the merchandise is way less committal since I just pop in from off the street rather than making a special trip to a mall. And I like shopping alone.

6. There are so many shoe stores! And they all have heals! I am not a high-heel wearer, as you may have noticed. I think I own one pair in the U.S. and maybe wear them once a year. But they’re so cool! I love browsing through them. I bought a pair. They kill my feet. I knew they were too small before I bought them, but I had made the poor girl working there run around looking for sizes for a while and I needed a pair because all I really brought with me was tennis shoes and flip-flops (mistake – Mexicans wear heels. A lot.). I bought the biggest size they had, because Mexican zapatarias aren’t really stocked for people who have feet that would be considered average in the U.S. I’ll probably leave them in Mexico.

Other facets of shopping in Mexico:

· Purchases are always stapled or taped shut at the counter. Maybe so that customers can’t add to the bags on their way out? I don’t know.

· Big bills are the bane of my existence. The ATM only wants to give me money in 500-peso bills. That’s less than $35 U.S., so that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, right? Wrong. No one has change for anything more than a hundred-peso bill. Even at the big department stores. I’m getting used to receiving glares and jamming up the line while the sales clerk has to run around to all the other registers asking for change.