Category: Commerce

Products, services, marketing, names

Single use plastic?

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.

At the lumber yard, Uruguay

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.

Well, duh.

I’ve settled in for not being a connoisseur. Cheap red wine here turns out to be very drinkable (white much more dubious) and if you ask me how it is, I won’t be saying the nose is decadent but not overdone with plum liqueur, Christmas cake, cedar, Chinese spices, licorice, tea leaves, tar and hot stones….pretty acidity and a long finish. Rather chewy and needs time.

Ain‘t it funny how the experts never mention the taste any non-drinker will identify most strongly: alcohol?

But I digress. I’ve never wondered about the name of the brand, Faisan. Probably a family name, right?

Only recently did I actually look at the label.

Guess what faisan means in Spanish?

Ah, Walmart

Yesterday, using my franquicia, an up to USD 200 3x per year tax-free import, I placed an order with Walmart. Not that I like Walmart, but I didn’t want to order everything from Amazon, because Amazon. Alas, within six minutes of placing the order , Walmart cancelled it.

No appeal, no explanation.

Rather than get upset with Walmart, I decided I should try again today.

Alas again, no luck with a stuffed unicorn. What’s a fella to do?