The Store

My Host Mom's Store

Both of my host parents work, but neither of them have regular, full time jobs, so my host mom supplements their income by selling items from the house. This little “store” may look simple – it is nothing more than a bookcase full of little household items – but provides a crucial source of income. Many of our neighbors don’t have the cash on hand, the time, or the desire to take a boat into the city to buy large quantities of their daily goods. With the nearest store in town a five minute walk from our house, my host mom started going to the market and buying diapers, laundry detergent, juice mix and other items and selling them from the house to the neighbors for a small markup. In my own case, it’s just a heck of a lot easier to buy a small bag of detergent from the store on laundry day than buying a big bag in the city and lugging it back to town when my backpack is already full of things I can’t get here in town (olive oil, vegetables, etc). Not only does the math work out, but it helps me experience some of the minor nuances of life on an island, which is worth at least a few hundred pesos that I would otherwise save by buying in bulk in the city every few weeks. 

The Store

On many mornings my host parents might be working or helping a family member in our town or in the city running errands; if I’m home alone – often planning classes, reading, or washing laundry – I’m usually keeping an eye on the store and tending to the neighbors that drop by to make a purchase. [Note: There is no obligation on my part to do this. My host mom has told me that if I am busy, I can close the front door so as to not be bothered, a practice I do occasionally. Often it’s not much of an inconvenience for me to get up and sell a diaper or two, though, so I usually attend to anyone that drops by.] Here are a few observations I have made on the “store.”

Candy is King

When the front door opens in the morning, neighborhood kids don’t skip a beat in come in to buy “confite,” or candy. I fear that some of the neighborhood kids don’t get much of a breakfast every morning, so their parents give them a few coins to come and buy candy. If it is early in the morning, say 7 or 8 am, my host mom usually sends the child away without any candy, saying it’s too early for candy and they should come back later in the morning after they eat breakfast. The store sells two kinds: Bianchi, a chewy caramel with a soft chocolate center, and ChocoManí, a hard, chocolate flavored candy with little bits of peanut. While both of these candies have their own groups of fans, Bianchi is easily the big seller. Both of them sell for 50 pesos per piece, so whenever a child gets a 50 or 100 peso coin, he or she usually wastes no time in looking to exchange it for a piece or two of candy.

Candy isn’t always a single purchase, but often a supplementary purchase. If someone comes and buys a 300 peso bag of Clorox bleach, for example, it is not uncommon for them to pay with 400 pesos and ask for two candies instead of the change. This can also be the reward for children running errands for their parents, a la, “Go to the store and get me X; you can buy candy with the change.”

Other items that we sell a lot of are diapers (for different sizes), sugar (in two different sized bags), laundry detergent, and medicine.

Know Your Brand

Often customers come in and request an item not by what it is, but by a brand name. In the U.S., the brand name Kleenex is often used to refer to the general item of a tissue. Here at my site, several other brand names are used to indicate a certain item, even if they don’t actually match the specific brand name. A Gilette for example is a disposable razor blade used locally to cut hair. Balance is deodorant, although I have only ever seen Speed Stick brand deodorant in the store.

The heavy reliance of brand names can be quite confusing for me and a bit frustrating for customers when I am left in charge of the store. A young woman recently stopped by to buy a woman’s sanitary napkin and referred to the product using a brand name I was not familiar with and didn’t match the brand name of the actual item in our store. She expected that I would know exactly what she needed and started to lose her patience when I had to repeatedly ask her exactly what she was looking for. Sometimes it’s best for me to just have the person point at the item they need; this is particularly useful for little kids who come in and can’t correctly pronounce the words in Spanish of what they are looking for. (It took me a few tries to figure out that one little neighbor was looking for sugar, azúcar, but could only say atuta).

Bottom shelf: Four different sizes of diapers

Can I Get Some Credit?

It’s not uncommon for someone to come by and request an item on credit. Fiar is the verb meaning more or less “to give something on credit” and I hear the word several times each day. When someone asks for something on credit, we keep track of what the person owes on a small piece of paper; if the request happens when it is just me in the house, I make a point to tell my host mother about it so that nothing falls through the cracks. Sometimes the person requesting an item actually has the money at his or her disposal, but it’s just easier to run up a small tab over the course of a day or two and pay it off later in the week rather than having a transaction for each individual purchase. Other times the person doesn’t have the money and says they will pay us later. Over time I have learned of a few individuals in the neighborhood who aren’t always the most reliable in paying back what they owe, so I tell these people that I am more than happy to sell them what they need but can’t give them items on credit for the time being.

Second shelf: Hair gel, razors, candles, toothpaste and much more!

Mind Your Manners

A lack of formality here on the coast can sometimes translate into some rude little children. It’s not uncommon for a four or five year old child to walk into the house and say “Give me X.” Most of the time these children haven’t been taught manners as we would expect in the United States, so can come off as quite demanding even if that is not their intention. I use these instances to teach the tiny customers about how to use small, magical words like “please” and “thank you.” Some of them have started to pick up on these practices and now ask politely when they see that I am in the house. Others need a small reminder such as “I would be very glad to help you, but what else do you say when you ask someone for something?”

Some of the older neighborhood children are usually my students at school, so I greet them in English or reinforce these manners using the English words. A few of these students tend to be very shy and avoid any speaking in class, so this lets me encourage them in a less stressful environment.

Third and fourth shelves: Food supplies and household goods

From One Generation to the Next

The store, humble as it may be, has its origins down the street, about a block away from the school where my host mom’s parents live and have sold items for probably a decade or more. In the front of the house is a glass case from which Adela, my host mom’s mother, sells Variedades, a hodgepodge of items ranging from scholastic basics (notebooks, paper, pens) to gift bags (the popular local alternative to wrapping gifts) and sandals in children’s sizes. Other than the beginning of the school year, I imagine the variedades case accounts for a small amount of income from random purchases, say, when your local gringo needs computer paper to print handouts for an English class. The real money is made around the side of the house, where the family sells beer, soda, snacks, and other consumables in the afternoon and evening.

A more recent addition to the store in my house has been a steel bowl of oranges. Neighborhood kids come in and buy an orange for $100, $150, or $200 pesos, depending on the size of the fruit. Coins from the sale of oranges go into a new plastic container overseen by my eight year old host sister; my host mom has been using the oranges to teach her saving and spending habits.

Top of the bookcase: Maximizing space and keeping candy out of reach of the children

Plans

Over the past few months the store has experienced a surge in demand – both in terms of quantity requested of current items sold and for items not sold from the store. In addition to the oranges for my host sister, they have added tiny bags of vinegar, fresh breads, cookies, garlic, and other items. With shelf space nearly exhausted, my host mom has mentioned the possibility of some minor renovation to the house – building a small room off of the front patio – to create a proper store and be able to sell both more items as well as directly into the street rather than having everyone come into the house when they need anything. She has crunched some numbers on the cost of construction, but the number is higher than feasible for now.

There you go!