I haven’t lived in the Untied Snakes in almost 20 years, but I don’t remember blocked aisles in supermarkets being a regular occurrence, as they are here. I don’t think many supermarkets up north have such crowded aisles.

I’m going to go way out on a limb, and guess that it wasn’t a customer who left a ladder blocking the aisle. And with crowded aisles, you might think employees here would take more care not block them. You would be wrong, of course.

That would involve assuming the employees are paying attention, or care. Also, situational awareness isn’t really a thing in Uruguay. That’s nice in a laid-back kind of way. Sometimes.

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….

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?”

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.