In reading the introduction of chapter 6, I recognized much of Chilean society. The book mentioned that in many countries in Europe, items had to be grouped into smaller packages in order to be sold. This is due to the smaller living spaces in many metropolitan areas in Europe, and the fact that consumers would prefer to buy less at a time in order to save space.
In my home here in Chile, everything is bought in smaller quantities- from toilet paper to bread to eggs. This is because the apartment doesn´t have a lot of room to store extra supplies. This causes my host mom to go to the store a few times a week. Comparing that to my home in the U.S., when I was growing up my mom would always buy things in bulk for my sisters and I, enought to last the whole month, because it was cheaper this way and more convenient than making multiple trips out to the store. Here, though, it seems to be the opposite case. Supplies and food are sold in smaller quantities and smaller packages, and people make more visits to the store.
It´s interesting to see how opposite this is, as I feel it reflects on Chilean style a little bit, which is more laid back and day to day. In the U.S. however, people would rather save time and money by making just one trip to the store every few weeks, because the Northern American style of living is more fast paced and people try to make their time as efficiently spent as possible.
Indeed, the shopping rhythm is here once a week and daily for fresh bread. Even for people from social segments that have big houses and freezers.
ReplyDeleteThe market for fresh fruit, vegetable, fish is also an important place Chilean families, but perhaps less so for Young Urban Professionals.
Getting a good understanding of those habits is paramount for supermarkets. In the Netherlands the shopping habits are quite similar to the Chilean ones, but for the bread. Non-chilean supermarkets have failed to succeed here (Carrefour, Albert Heyn - through Santa Isabel). Walmart decided to stay out of sight and bought Lider.