Survey: Globalization and You

[fedecc]

Vienna: No bags and no baggers. That is you have to buy the bags you use. And the cashiers work so fast that you dont have time to pay and pick up your stuff, so it often gets mixed with the next guys stuff, and well...its a mess.

Not to mention closing hours. 6 PM Seriously? Im starving to death here because i keep forgetting everything closes at 6.


Ok, rant over.

 

[katti]

Not to mention closing ours. 6 PM Seriously? Im starving to death here because i keep forgetting everything closes at 6.


Ok, rant over.

yes, know the feeling, and they only open at 9!

 

[AlexfromLA]

Anybody here like the Jumbo Palermo ?? Yeah I do to. In fact, I consider that and Carrefour the best supermarkets in town actually. They have the best service and the best widest selection of products I use. And so do the Argentinians, these chains are extremely successful here. Guess what, Jumbo is Chilean and Carrefour is French. Go figure.

You don't need international corporations to be efficient, innovative and modern. If more Argentinian companies filled this obvious need, you wouldn't have all the international companies invading so successfully.

The same thing happened in the US with the American auto industry. They were content being inefficient, expensive, and non innovative. And look what happened ? The Japanese came in with a better, cheaper, more innovative and modern product and they blew the American companies out of the water.

Why demonize the Japanese innovators for this ? If anything they helped the American consumer by giving him more choices at a better price. It also brought jobs and more tax revenue to the local economy. On top of that it MADE the American auto industry take notice and start giving the people what they wanted at a competitive price.

Years later, all these recent innovations in the auto industry ( hybrids, electric vehicles, computer interfaces, higher safety standards etc ) are all thanks to the Asian auto makers forcing the American automakers to innovate in order to compete.

Give me choice, competition and a dynamic market place where companies compete for the consumers business any day over a stagnant backwater economy where the little shop owner can tell his client to " fcuk off " because he's the only show in town.

On top of that South America is ridiculously monopolized by a few wealthy families in every country that control and own everything. Why would anyone root for them to continue to keep their ill gotten monopolies ?

Okay, end of rant.

 

[JoeBlow]

Somehow, when I think of globalisation, bagging at the grocery store is not at the top of my list...

The real negative affects of globalisation are the killing off of local traditions, eccentricities, manufacturers, crafts, foods, culture and character, to be replaced with lowest common denominator multinational corporate products and profits.

One of the things I find refreshing about Argentina is how, compared to many countries, there is less of this globalisation.

Of course, part of the reason for this is the inept and inscrutable governmental policies, regarding tariffs, and imports and exports.
We all know the down side of Argentine commercial regulations- there are hundreds, probably thousands, of posts right on this forum complaining about expensive Ipods and silly rules and things lost at customs.

But the flip side of all that insanity is that Argentina has much less penetration by the cookie cutter multinationals. Even in small towns in Tuscany now, there is a Bennetton on every corner. Chain restaurants like KFC, the "venerable Colonel", are everywhere in China- close to 3000 of that brand alone. The US has seen locally owned hardware stores, office supply stores, lumberyards, camera stores, bookstores, and many other local, small businesses driven out of business in the last decade or so by Office Max, Home Depot, Walmart and Barnes and Noble- but in Argentina, the vast majority of shops are still small, local and family owned.


I consider that a good thing, me.

Sure, you dont always get the absolute rockbottom price on the latest disposable made in China product with a six month lifespan. Instead, you get ongoing relationships with real people, selling idiosyncratic argentine products that are often pretty unique.

You can have Globalisation, as far as I am concerned. I prefer funky, local, and small.

I was hoping somebody would want to talk globalization.

I think baggers are just as much a part of gloablization as McDonald's. Regardless of where a tradition/custom starts, (cultural) gloablization can be chalked up to our essence as human beings.

People go abroad (or read a book or see a movie) and then implement whatever ideas they like in their home country. That is globalization (cultural, of course; I'm not referring to economic gloablization). That is also our essence: we imitate what we like in others/in other countries.

So, while I agree with the spirit of virtually all of your post, I would also like to hear opinions about my original claim at the top of the post:

"Globalization has its potential good points. For example, the more we are all alike, the less we will want to harm each other (or so I think)"

 

[JoeBlow]

Anybody here like the Jumbo Palermo ?? Yeah I do to. In fact, I consider that and Carrefour the best supermarkets in town actually. They have the best service and the best widest selection of products I use. And so do the Argentinians, these chains are extremely successful here. Guess what, Jumbo is Chilean and Carrefour is French. Go figure.

You don't need international corporations to be efficient, innovative and modern. If more Argentinian companies filled this obvious need, you wouldn't have all the international companies invading so successfully.

The same thing happened in the US with the American auto industry. They were content being inefficient, expensive, and non innovative. And look what happened ? The Japanese came in with a better, cheaper, more innovative and modern product and they blew the American companies out of the water.

Why demonize the Japanese innovators for this ? If anything they helped the American consumer by giving him more choices at a better price. It also brought jobs and more tax revenue to the local economy. On top of that is MADE the American auto industry take notice and start giving the people what they wanted at a competitive price.

Years later, all this recent innovation in the auto industry ( hybrids, electric vehicles, computer interfaces etc ) are all thanks to the Asian auto makers forcing the American automakers to innovate in order to compete.

Give me choice, competition and a dynamic market place where companies compete for the consumers business any day over a stagnant backwater economy where the little shop owner can tell his client to " fcuk off " because he's the only show in town.

On top of that South America is ridiculously monopolized by a few wealthy families in every country that control and own everything. Why would anyone root for them to continue to keep their ill gotten monopolies ?

Okay, end of rant.

Totally agree with your rant in every aspect.

Also, let's not forget to make sure all countries are on a level playing field (or however the hell that idiom goes). That's one big reservation I have with calling capitalism a nice system: the US lives off other countries.

 

[AlexfromLA]

That's one big reservation I have with calling capitalism a nice system: the US lives off other countries.

In the past you could blame the US for this but not anymore. Citizens in every democratic country vote for their elected representatives. If they choose to elect people that will sell off their country piecemeal to international corporations and also borrow billions upon billions at extremely unfavorable conditions, why would you blame the international corporations or the international lending institutions ?

But yes I agree with the spirit of your post. I just think the fault lies with the citizens who vote ( or don't vote ) if their country is at a disadvantage.

 

[ghost]

In Uruguay there are baggers in all the supermarkets. Here I shop at the "almacen" a block away - I order by phone and a teenager on a bicycle delivers the order, so I don't know whether they have baggers.

But they must have some highly skilled wrappers - their brown eggs come neatly packaged in newspaper. No string or tape, but the package is so tight that it stays neat and compact in the refrigerator.

You must shop at Charlies place????

 

[fred mertz]

Bagging the groceries is a small part of the problem Why do Disco cashiers have to yell "Cambio" for every cash transaction? Why do they have to fill out forms for the delivery info? Why isn't it on their Disco Plus card? Why is it that when there is an endless line of people, the customer being waited on remembers that she (usually a she) forget to buy something that's in the back fo the store? Then it's the ID info for the credit-debit card. I was at the express lane in Coto on French. The line was long. Here comes senora with an overflowing cart to the beginning of the line. She had gone up and down every aisle of the 2 story store without a prob-
lem, but she was handicapped. Since she looked to be in perfect physical health, I asked her why she got in front of the line? She took out a piece of paper that showed her medical problem. It looked as if it was her grandmother's who died in 1912. The woman behind me said that women who are 1 week pregnant also demand priority.
I just returned from a trip to Europe and N.Y., visiting super ( and boy, some are really SUPER markets.) None had baggers. All were efficiently run.
I rarely go to the big guys and buy almost everything at a small market on Arenales near Esmeralda. Never a wait, good prices and they have big computer screens at the check out stand for the customer to see. The Chinese markets can also be good and speedy. Produce? From the (mostly) Bolivian women on the streets.

 

[SaraSara]

You must shop at Charlies place????

No, I shop at "El Antiguo Almacen", a tiny grocery/firewood store occupying the garage of an old house, and sharing the phone line with the old lady who lives upstairs. Can't get more Third World than that.

Perhaps that old lady is the one wrapping the eggs - those packages are really works of art. The corner folds look like something out of an origami book.

 

[sanj]

I use my hard waring eco-friendly supermarket bag, that is reusable. Much better than the plastic stuff they hand out by the dozen at Coto etc. I suggest that if supermarkets were to offer a bagging service then they should use these eco-friendly bags.