Wal Mart (Argentina)

Wal Mart (Argentina) Today I ventured out of the Capital to go to Wal Mart. I was not particularly interested in buying anything I was more interested in seeing the "Wal Mart way" as applied to Argentina. Would they use the same business methods? Would the store be set up like a typical U.S. Wal Mart? Are they going to carry American brands and simply sell them at a lower price in Argentina? Keep in mind that in Buenos Aires business is done very diffrently than where you would find Wal Mart. Everything is urban and family owned. Typically stores a small shops and discount stores are rare. All of these things were intresting enough for me to make the one hour trip out of the city.

Well Wal Mart is pretty much exactly the same physically as you are used to in the U.S. Dark blue warehouse style building, all the slogans are the same only translated to Spanish (Low prices everyday = Bajos pricos todos los dias). The workers wear thoes vests and there is a door greeter (they were even old and febel). The store set up is exactly the same. Fruits and veggies when you walk in and a row of small shops (McDonalds, eye center, hair place) by the check out. I knew the layout of the store almost without thinking. The items in the store were typical of a large supermarket and electronics and clothing store combined. There were not a lot of rare American items. I did find Hinz ketcup and a few other things. One intresting element of the store was that there was a Holleween display with masks and candy. Holleween is not celebrated in Argentina so I was suprised to see that.

I didn't really enjoy the experience to tell you the truth. I was in a very American store but I was surrounded by Argentine city people. Everything was so crouded. No one walked correctly. They have not been correctly taught the Wal Mart walk. For example: if you are going to look at something for an extended period of time pull your ass over and scoot your F*@%!N cart out of the isle. Oh and this little jewel: Your adorable little 4 year old spanish speaking daughter is going to get trampled if you let her run out into a Wal Mart highway. Everything was worse because Wal Mart was connected to a huge mall. It isn't like in Georgia where there is about five football fields of parking and then just Wal Mart and a couple of little stores. Everything was mixed. I was really stressed the whole time. To add insult to injury there was no self check out but I still had to bag my own crap. The lines were crazy long with people clipping coupons and trying to save a few pesos. I just bought a buch of junk food (and a cool blow up pillow for camping) to feel like I was doing something. When I finally got to the front of the line I was short 5 pesos (1.35$). Of course I wasn't going to get out of line and I didn't want to use my card (they charge) so I put back the ketchup. I was kind of shocked at how much I spent (32.00$). I guess it isn't a huge amount but I thought it would be less. I mean this is Wal Mart isn't it