An inquisitive old fart with a camera
Products, services, marketing, names
I had to pick up some lumber the other day, and couldn’t help—again—be amazed at some of what’s on display. In this case, a 1″ x 20″ (yes, two-oh) 12-foot clear pine board. (Alas, I didn’t ask its cost.)
Flash back to Home Depot, over 20 years ago, searching for bargain 2x4s that weren’t totally bent and twisted and full of knots….
Just to be clear, that’s not a grooming brush and those aren’t nylon bristles.
Which is just fine: I bought for fleas.
This is where our weekly street market is located. During Thursday afternoon, all regular traffic for every house on each block is restricted. That’s a fair number of houses.
So what if there’s an emergency and police or an ambulance need access?
Not to worry: there are rules directing the vendors to leave enough space in the road for a large vehicle to pass.
“Emerson,” you ask? My favorite quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882 ): A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds….
Which reminds me of the question, “How do you say ‘quality control’ in Latin America?”
To which the answer is often, “¿Que?”
OK, it’s been five years since I ranted about this: people in Tienda Inglesa blocking aisles with abandoned shopping carts. What are they thinking?
And who are these people?
Employees, of course.
Fruit-fly attention span, or just a general lack of situational awareness? My guess is the latter.
Recalling with faint dread that I need to start the weed eater which I haven’t used in weeks, and which should be started weekly to keep its 2-stroke motor from glomming up, I fondly recall a tool my father had decades ago. Come to find out yes, it’s called a grass whip, and yes, still sold. Weighs less than a kilo. Maybe could get our freight forwarder to deliver one here, for 20 bucks or so…
…or maybe just buy it here, with 17-day delay, for only USD 117!
Let’s see: item plus 60% duty is $48.
100% markup makes $96.
$21 for shipping. Nice business, I guess, when you can treat a retail price as a wholesale discount price.
And translate the trademark brand name into Spanish for an extra touch of class.
I bought butter from Mercado Atlántida (which has expanded rather remarkably over the last few years; currently subsuming the neighboring butcher shop) and was startled with the cashier’s behavior, swiping the packages on the countertop then holding them below. When I asked, she replied “alarmas” and sure enough, I see there are security strips. On butter.
Isn’t that kind of overdoing it?
Looking online, I see these things cost around 4 US cents in bulk in the US, or around 2 pesos, but importing would bring them to more like 7-8¢ each, or ~4 pesos, meaning roughly 4% of the cost of the chunk of butter.
Worth it? Well, if people are shoplifting butter, I’d say so.
FWIW, cost of this butter was around USD 4.33/pound, versus 4.90/pound or so in the US.
Home delivery of schawarma, lemeyun (Armenian pizza), falafel, baklava: what’s not to like?
Perhaps the fact that my photo wasn’t detailed enough to get the phone number? But hey. Took about two minutes to figure it out.
This is a plastic egg carton from Tienda Inglesa.
We have not bought eggs from Tienda Inglesa in years – five or six at least. I discovered eggs are cheaper in the street market (feria) so bought eggs there, but because the best feria packaging for a dozen tends to be a plastic bag, I started carrying this with me. Now I buy them next door in recycled cardboard trays of 15, and put them in this container for storage (actually, we have two of them).
Five or six years? At least, and quite probably more.
And why the one egg on the lid? Because this single use container, meant to be opened 12 times at the most, has been opened and closed hundreds of times and is still springy enough that without a weight, the lid will pop back over the rest of the eggs.
And most people will simply throw it in the garbage.
I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately, refinishing kitchen cabinets, fixing and cleaning things, and looking at the ugly kitchen light fixtures I threw together 15 years ago, thinking, “What if I did that right?” So off to Aserradero Rocha, ten minutes away, to buy 1 x 10 x 240 cm clear pine –that’s less then 1/2″ thick and almost 8 feet long.
It’s a “take a number and wait” place, so there’s time to wander around. The rough bits always stoke my creativity. Elsewhere they have larger pieces – two inches thick and a couple feet or more across – that are obvious tabletops. Much less imagination required.
I see a clear pine eight foot 1 x 20″ board. No immediate need, but duly noted. Certainly not something I ever saw at Home Depot as I picked through their tortuous-but-cheap 2x4s.
I further note that, if a fella’s willing to put up with a knot or two, the same is available in 4-meter (13 feet) lengths.
No, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.