Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Shopping again, last time this year....hopefully!

Since Patzcuaro doesn't have any mega-marts other than for some basic food items and the town was somewhat empty of hustle and bustle, (thanks to some nefarious activities of grown men wanting to play with guns and matches on some of the hiways), we decided to sneak out of town for the rest of the afternoon.

Taking the back road first trough Quiroga, stopping for lunch at one of the many restaurants on the small restaurant row by El Correo, finally dropping us into Morelia unnoticed, we had a mission.

It's always good to have a mission, a plan, a goal otherwise it seems that you drag around and don't get much done except stopping at a Pemex station sooner or later for a pit stop and being ancy to return to the comforts and security of home.

I needed a few items that only Liverpool would have. ( Braun shaver parts) I also needed to pick up an ink cartridge since my printer ink was on vapors. The printer cartridges they now make are minuscule, once they have you hooked on printing photos and stuff, you are hostage to high printer cartridge prices. One of the first ink jet printers I had, the ink would last over a year, now a few months, at a much higher cost, thanks a lot!
This printer, that uses liquid gold, is now going on 5 years, almost obsolete if you ask anyone. Office Depot is the only store that seems to carry the cartridge, combine that with a parking lot and they have another customer. ( Did you know that if you purchased the ink by a gallon it would cost thousands of dollars?, but that's another story.) A more perfect rip off has never been designed. Now they give the printers away just to get the cartridge business.

La Senora wanted to go and check out a few of the shops in the newly remodeled mall. She figured that if she pulled me along, I might succumb to equipping her with a few white blouses and the like..... I swear, she must have enough white blouses to ware each day of the week by now.

Anyway traffic for a Wednesday afternoon was almost normal, what was not normal is the backup instead of usually being around the zoo, was backing up at the intersection by the Governor's Palace....must be Christmas shoppers?
The President is not in town and neither is any Rock Star, so it must be the last Wednesday before Christmas combined with early after noon restlessness....

I did notice that most of the stores were doing a brisk business, as evidence of strollers with children and overflowing bags and packages.

My observation is that the economy must be doing quite well, at least in Morelia. One can notice lots of BMW's, Mercedes and late model cars in the parking lots. A space or two removed the ratty old pickup truck parked still is seen. Well, perhaps the truck owner is buying some tools at Sears.... That's where I buy my tools, and my pickup is almost ratty.

The new mall in Morelia is about 5 time larger than it use to be. It still sports the cornerstone of Mexican shopping, the Sanborns coffee shop.

I usually park myself somewhere while I wait for my wife. There are several spots, one is at the Lilliannas coffee shop. There is also a brand new McDonalds, the new outlet is one of their "new vision" stores. Those stores include a Cafe.. A McD Cafe is where you get table service, several styles of coffee all served sans paper cup. A nice thick ceramic mug is presented to you at your table along with pan dulce if you so desire, at a very reasonable price too.
McD figured this out to compete with Starbucks. My first exposure of this new concept was around 3 or 4 months ago when the store first opened. I think that this new concept is going to bring some additional business to their stores. Now if they could only keep the clown and screaming kids out of the coffee area, life would be good. McD figured out how to present luxury, decent coffee in a ceramic cup, pan dulce, table service and WiFI.
My perfect afternoon, checking my email, surfing the net on a 3" screen, slurping a good cup of coffee, sitting watching people walk by and enjoying it.

6 comments:

Michael Dickson said...

I love that snazzy McDonald's.

You buy new printer cartridges?! Just have the old one refilled. Costs way less.

Don Cuevas said...

A visit to the Liverpool Department Store is for me a sort of hallucinogenic experience.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

Tancho said...

Felipe, my prior experience was not good with refills, if you have had good luck, then where might I get this service performed?

Sr Cuevas, I marvel at the grand scheme of things when I go there each time. I also wonder exactly how much their electric bill is on a monthly basis? I know what mine is with the few bulbs that we have in the house, but there, gotta wonder how many fancy bars of soap and denim jeans they must sell to pay for all that energy.

Michael Dickson said...

I've had cartridges filled, I believe, three times. Two times it worked fine. The third time it did not, but the young women in the shop clearly did not know what she was doing. I'd try it again. There are places all over that do it.

JerryL said...

Well Starbucks is now serving breakfast sandwiches and stuff, so it;s a natural for McDoDo to serve upscale coffees.

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Hi Tancho - Happy Holidays to you and your wife and I hope you two stay warm!