My Chilean Wal-Mart Experience

Okay, so I almost feel bad blogging this much... Almost... But you all could not possibly believe the cross-cultural experience I had yesterday.  It's too good not to blog.  Really.


So yesterday afternoon I met up with my Chilean friend Wen for sushi in the comuna La Florida.  The sushi restaurant was located at an enormous mall.  (The sushi was delicious by the way.)  Anyways, so after sushi we went walking around the mall - a good idea, in theory.  Whoa.  Talk about a shock.  I thought it was insane that JUMBO had Herbal Essence shampoo, but this mall could have been in the United States, seriously.  I think I knew more of the stores than were foreign (maybe that's an exaggeration...)  There was Hush Puppies, Naturalizers, Apple Resellers (Note:  Apple products are at least two times as expensive in Chile as in the US), JanSport, Columbia, Billabong, Roxy... the list goes on.  Plus, there was a lot of ENGLISH words.  Like one store was called "Shoes & Piel" (Piel meaning "skin" or "leather").  As you will see in one picture, a store had written "Chek This Out" on its window (obviously, they didn't have a very good Spanish-English dictionary, or spell-check).  As Wen and I were walking around the mall, she was surprised that I was so surprised by all the similarities in brands etc.  Then she said to me, "Sarah, we're all gringo wanna-be's."  In a sense, I think she was joking but there seemed to be some truth in that statement too.  


Anyways, then we went to the epitome of the U.S. influence in Chile - Líder, which the chain of stores that Wal-Mart owns.  If you can only imagine.... It feels exactly like Wal-Mart when you walk in.  The most shocking thing was probably the all the Great Value things.  They even had peanut butter, which was VERY shocking.  They also had Lays potato chips, Betty Crocker cookie and cake mix, Oreos, and even Chips Ahoy or however you spell it... Of course, most of those things were very expensive, but just the fact that they were available shocked me.  Anyways, when you see the pictures you might not even believe that I am in Santiago, Chile.  Honestly, I don't think I ever want to return to those enormous malls and the super-stores filled with Great Value products... Not really my cup of tea - in the US and especially in Chile.  

Well, that was short, for your sakes and for mine.  I am going to go back to playing Trivial Pursuit with the "fam."  (PS I won the first game even with my language handicap!!)  It's kinda rainy, windy and cold here in Santiago so it's a great day to stay indoors, drink tea, and play games.


Besos,
Sarah