ense of deadlines and impending doom and anxiety over what will happen if we don't get our soy latte RIGHT NOW. But here in Argentina (and much more outside of the capital) you are forced to mellow out, relax, walk slowly, eat slowly, take life as it comes.That said, as far as customer service goes, Buenos Aires has really cornered the market on excessive employees in stores and restaurants. It's not uncommon to see 8 people clustered behind the counter in a small café with maybe five tables. It will still take 45 minutes for you to get your café con leche.
For example, yesterday my fantastic new roommate Sophy and I went on a mission to buy fans for the apartment. Spring is turning into Summer here in Buenos Aires, and we have three sweaty months of excruciating heat in front of us. We went to a nearby electronics store called Frávega. There were so many salesman it was hard to walk around the store,
but eventually we decided on two floor fans ($89 pesos each, or less than $30 dollars.) I told the salesman who had been helping us that we wanted to get the fans. Because we were paying with credit cards, he needed to enter all the information from our Driver's Licenses into the computer and print out several forms, which we took to a different counter, where we paid for the fans and received more paperwork. We took the second paperwork to another counter where someone else (three people actually) were in charge of retrieving the fans from the back storage room. The illusive fans were brought out and another employee opened the boxes, I guess for us to inspect them. An older Argentine lady next to us seemed to be inspecting the fan she was buying quite carefully, but Sophy and I just wanted to get on with it at that point. Then we had to sign two more pieces of paper to prove we had received the fans. Finally, the fans were bagged up and we could leave. I think it was less work when I bought my first car.It was an experience, and now I have a fan in my bedroom, which I'm pretty sure is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
3 comentarios:
oh yeah, I just experienced that same weird experience in Garbarino two days ago, but with at least ten salesmen there, I had to approach someone and ask to be assisted, and buying a tiny epilator, I still had to go through all the red tape and wait for them to bring it from the storage room, the whole thing took easily half an hour.
From what I´ve seen though, that´s just Garbarino and Fravega, who are almost twin stores. Next time, you might want to try the Coto on Honduras and Salguero, they have a good selection of appliances and things are less fussy.
PS: for some reason, the blog only lets you post comments with a google account, which not everyone has, so you might want to look into the blog configuration.
its gonna be a helluva time coming back to that hot hot weather. i think ill get a small pocket fan.
marce - thanks for pointing that out, i'll see if i can figure out how to change the settings... A ver...
And yes, I think next time I will go to Coto. Unless I am bored and wondering what to do with my afternoon, then I'll go to Fravega. On the upside, the salesmen were very nice.
will - you'll only be here for like 3 days!! i think you can handle it. also, it's cooled down a bit now, no te preocupes. when are you getting back again, so we can plan your goodbye party?
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