RTW: Exchange in Chile

Salesmen and security

Now I'm giving you all lots to read in your office on monday morning. Hope you enjoy (the first posts made today are more interesting than this one, I promise), and feel free to drop me a line yourself if you have the time.

As always, I am trying to figure out why things are like they are in a given country. In Chile there are two things that are very common but taken to the extreme: the salesmen and the security. There can be up to 5 people selling you something in a small store; they have their own supply chain going on in the store -and I mean in a store that could be run by two or three persons max. First you ask one salesman of the product you want, he points you to the right direction. Second salesman is the one who presents the product to you. Should you decide to buy, you are given a receit which you present to third salesman, who takes the payment. The fourth salesman checks that you have paid (they give a stamp) and the last one delivers you the product if payment is really made. I mean, if they think that works faster than with one or two people they must be joking. The only explanation I can think of is that they just want to have the payment separately (for security), but it still does not explain all..

Then, it is true that Santiago is a safe city by Latin American standards. But that is, according to my theory, because of the übersecurity of all places. They have guards and police everywhere. Sometimes I just get the "someone is watching you" -feeling, as they are virtually in every corner. In central Santiago you can have carabineros (police) moving around in a fortified bus that resembles an all-terrain vehicle. The place where it is taken to the extreme is my dear university with all the rich kids in it: you can not take a leak there without somebody reporting on it. In the supermarkets the guards stalk you, I counted 6 guards visible in addition to the cameras and behind-the scenes operators in my local, medium -sized supermarket. But, I guess Chileans like their safety. And this way there are less unemployed people. ;)

posted by Kassu @ 10:13 PM