expat0tree
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- Dec 18, 2018
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Ever since I landed in Argentina and began buying bread at an Argentine bakery, I wanted to write about the experience without complaining too much and without being cynical. The occasional bad customer service is certainly worth a mention but by itself, is not enough of a reason to write about it. With the coronavirus complicating the overall consumer economy, things have changed enough that I don't have to be particularly creative to convey the absurdities of the worsening customer service in this country.
The bakery in front of my apartment sells stale bread. Their job is to tell people, that the bread is fresh, so that they can get rid of yesterday's stock and save on overhead costs. This is especially important for the business, now that less people are buying. They have new competition too. Previously closed space half a block down reopened to make whatever little money they can as an alternative to listing their shop for sale. So people are eating stale bread now. From both bakeries.
This wouldn't be much of big deal if their bread was an actual real sourdough bread, of course, it lasts longer and tastes fine even when it's five days old, but as many of you already know already, Argentina doesn't understand what sourdough bread really is, and why would anyone bother producing it. So they bake buns from refined white flour and call it bread. It's still delicious when hot, don't get me wrong, I put a thick layer of butter on it and with chicken soup, it's quite good, but absolutely disgusting once no longer fresh.
Yesterday, I returned the stale bread back to the bakery for the first time. They didn't give my money back, obviously, that would have been a miracle, but at least, I caught the owner hot-handed and told him how I felt. He pretty much accused me of a murder and told me to shove those buns up my ass, albeit somewhat politely as not to disturb the customers that were there looking to spend their money.
I was really upset and an hour later, I returned the remainder of the bread I had found in another bag. The owner was there again and he called me a troll, basically accusing me of a wrong doing and then someone came to my rescue. An old man had the same problem, saying how he used to buy fresh bread every single day, until they started either mixing fresh with old or just shamelessly sold yesterday's buns. Then came his neighbor, with similar complain about another product, medialunas being too thin I think, and soon enough, the owner got so infuriated that he simply disappeared into the worker's area at the back.
Today, there was no lineup at 11 o'clock, the usual time for buying "fresh bread". There were more people at the other bakery down the street, but there too, I saw that same old man complained about the bread being stale! So I went there to investigate and found the owner lady complaining to the old man who got inspired by what I had done a day prior and brought back his stale bread. She was saying that her business can hardly survive now. I interjected saying that the survival of her business had nothing to do with customer service and that if she's incapable of providing the public with guaranteed fresh buns every single morning, then she probably shouldn't be selling bread at all. She then accused me of being selfish for saying such things. In her mind, my job as a customer, is to not only buy local, always, but to also support the small business as my own family, who wouldn't otherwise be able to survive if every one was "too picky". Her daughter came to rescue and then the husband came out with a sour I'll-fix-everything face, so I left because there were new customers outside the store with masks on, waiting impatiently for their turn to buy something.
I stepped outside and waited to see. A young woman went in there, probably in her 20s, she overheard the conversation and immediately asked the owner lady if she ate her own stale bread. The owner said "of course," but nobody believed her because we all know the homeless take away a full bag of free stale bread every evening. The girl laughed at her and left, demonstrating complete distrust. One other customer left too. I too left then and now, the store is closed, even though it is supposed to be open. The old couple who started the whole thing, or was it me who started it? They stayed on the street for many hours afterwards. Their son brought them chairs and mate and they talked to everybody they knew about the shitty bread sold in their bakeries, demonstrating once again, that the product and service was there to fulfill their basic demands before fulfilling the financial goals of the greedy businesses who obviously didn't eat their own stale bread.
The bakery in front of my apartment sells stale bread. Their job is to tell people, that the bread is fresh, so that they can get rid of yesterday's stock and save on overhead costs. This is especially important for the business, now that less people are buying. They have new competition too. Previously closed space half a block down reopened to make whatever little money they can as an alternative to listing their shop for sale. So people are eating stale bread now. From both bakeries.
This wouldn't be much of big deal if their bread was an actual real sourdough bread, of course, it lasts longer and tastes fine even when it's five days old, but as many of you already know already, Argentina doesn't understand what sourdough bread really is, and why would anyone bother producing it. So they bake buns from refined white flour and call it bread. It's still delicious when hot, don't get me wrong, I put a thick layer of butter on it and with chicken soup, it's quite good, but absolutely disgusting once no longer fresh.
Yesterday, I returned the stale bread back to the bakery for the first time. They didn't give my money back, obviously, that would have been a miracle, but at least, I caught the owner hot-handed and told him how I felt. He pretty much accused me of a murder and told me to shove those buns up my ass, albeit somewhat politely as not to disturb the customers that were there looking to spend their money.
I was really upset and an hour later, I returned the remainder of the bread I had found in another bag. The owner was there again and he called me a troll, basically accusing me of a wrong doing and then someone came to my rescue. An old man had the same problem, saying how he used to buy fresh bread every single day, until they started either mixing fresh with old or just shamelessly sold yesterday's buns. Then came his neighbor, with similar complain about another product, medialunas being too thin I think, and soon enough, the owner got so infuriated that he simply disappeared into the worker's area at the back.
Today, there was no lineup at 11 o'clock, the usual time for buying "fresh bread". There were more people at the other bakery down the street, but there too, I saw that same old man complained about the bread being stale! So I went there to investigate and found the owner lady complaining to the old man who got inspired by what I had done a day prior and brought back his stale bread. She was saying that her business can hardly survive now. I interjected saying that the survival of her business had nothing to do with customer service and that if she's incapable of providing the public with guaranteed fresh buns every single morning, then she probably shouldn't be selling bread at all. She then accused me of being selfish for saying such things. In her mind, my job as a customer, is to not only buy local, always, but to also support the small business as my own family, who wouldn't otherwise be able to survive if every one was "too picky". Her daughter came to rescue and then the husband came out with a sour I'll-fix-everything face, so I left because there were new customers outside the store with masks on, waiting impatiently for their turn to buy something.
I stepped outside and waited to see. A young woman went in there, probably in her 20s, she overheard the conversation and immediately asked the owner lady if she ate her own stale bread. The owner said "of course," but nobody believed her because we all know the homeless take away a full bag of free stale bread every evening. The girl laughed at her and left, demonstrating complete distrust. One other customer left too. I too left then and now, the store is closed, even though it is supposed to be open. The old couple who started the whole thing, or was it me who started it? They stayed on the street for many hours afterwards. Their son brought them chairs and mate and they talked to everybody they knew about the shitty bread sold in their bakeries, demonstrating once again, that the product and service was there to fulfill their basic demands before fulfilling the financial goals of the greedy businesses who obviously didn't eat their own stale bread.
