My host family and I went to Reñaca today to exchange my sister's sweatshirt, and I got to see a different side of shopping in South America, as in outside of the mall. One of the things I noticed the most was all of the liquidacións I saw.
They had these inside the mall as well, but there are so many stores that say "30, 50, 70% off!" In the states we advertise sales, but I felt like we also advertise new lines as well. Here, all I've seen are sale ads to entice people to enter. There could be so many sale signs because it's the end of summer, but I'm not sure of that yet.
One store we visited had a sign in the window saying "Todo 5.999" which really excited my family. We went in to look around and I picked up a sweatshirt that I liked, and asked if it was 5.999. Which I thought was obviously going to be a stupid question because everything was the same price right? But it was actually way more expensive. I don't think I've ever seen an advertisement with such a blatant lie before- if you say everything is 5.999 then everything should be 5.999.
Just a few things I noticed.
Thanks for your entry Mollie. Interesting observation. When you live here longer you become sort of numb, indifferent, for these messages, at least I am. They do not appear in all types of stores. I'm certain that the Mall has rules for that.
ReplyDeleteAsk your host family how they react to those "offerings". Do they take them serious? Would them complain about such a deceiving offering? Chileans are not that keen on making a fuss about such a situation; they tend to avoid conflicts, nearly at all costs.