Monday, October 22, 2007

America´s Favorite Pastime...Shopping

Here in Ecuador there is no ¨shopping¨ culture. Fortunately. This is one of the things we came to get away from. Sure I miss the convenience of easily being able to find whatever it is you want to find...and then being able to return it if you find out you didn´t really want it, or need it, or whatever. But I don´t miss the constant temptation and in-your-face advertising of all the new neat products that are out there for you to waste your money on.

Yesterday we went to a ¨shopping center¨. Really, just a little plaza with a few fancy stores in it, one of the few that really resemble a fancy shopping gallery, not just a mall. This one is located in Cumbaya, right off the plaza which is part of the little town, and now suburb of Quito, where we live. It has cute, fancy shops, the kind only a few people in Quito could afford. And it has lots of vacant space for rent. It´s done in Spanish style, with fountains, gardens with flowers of many colors, and in an arcade plan which allows you to walk from front to back while looking in the store windows.

I looked in the window of one of the spaces, it must have been a bar before. Nothing there. An empty dance studio next door. Another empty space for rent. The idea that people would come here to browse and buy in such a place is totally flawed...this culture of shopping just doesn´t exist in Ecuador. I imagine the main anchor store does ok, it´s right in the front on the street. But these shops towards the back of the arcade were silent. It was a Sunday afternoon, the time when you´d thing most people would be out shopping...not a soul. The few shops that were open were just about empty, and I didn´t see anyone else around but my family.

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