Un Cuento de Dos Verdulerias

A Messy Discussion of Urban Planning

I live near two “verdulerias.” For the Brit(s) reading this, “fruit and veg'' shops. For the Americans, imagine a farmer’s market that is open everyday and 20 yards from your front door. Both shops are within walking distance of my apartment, closer than the distance from my bedroom to the mailbox in the USA. These shops and others like it that sell wine and cheese or just meat are fairly ordinary and common in Buenos Aires as well as other densely populated cities. However, coming from semi-rural America, these shops are unique and serve as a vehicle for me to examine the design of American cities and describe the drawbacks of large, centralized stores.

I had first thought of how special these stores are during my intensive Spanish course. In my last week of class, I had only one classmate who is a 45 year-old Texan named Mark. Mark and I both regularly watch “Not Just Bikes” on YouTube (highly recommend). NJB highlights the benefits of public transportation and urban planning that is human-centric as opposed to car-centric. This shared interest of mine and Mark’s often led classes to be odes to the public transportation and city design in BA as well as critiques of our American homeland.

During one particular day, we were explaining what “Wal-Mart” is to our teacher from El Salvador. He laughed at the ability for consumers to buy baby products, guns, produce, houseplants, and clothes all on the same trip. Mark and I lamented that to go grocery shopping, most Americans drive to a large store like Wal-Mart or Kroger to buy everything. From alcohol, cheese, vegetables, meat, etc. American shoppers drive to one location for everything. Having to get in and out of the car to shop for groceries makes one location that has everything more appealing than going to specialty shops for each thing that you need. Imagine the hassle of getting in the car to go 15 minutes to buy vegetables and fruit, packing up the car, driving 5 minutes to the butcher, packing up the car, driving 2 minutes to the wine and cheese shop, walking across the parking lot to go to a health food store, etc. all before returning home. This would greatly increase our amount of time grocery shopping and we would be far more likely to run into a check out line or traffic with so many different stores to visit and trips to make in the car.

On the surface this may seem convenient or of no real consequence, but there are a series of problems associated with one centralized store having so much power. For example, Wal-Mart pays the employees at its stores at or near minimum wage and all local employees are anonymous to the C-Suite. As an employee, there is little incentive to do a better job nor do you serve a strong connection to the community. Yes, members of the community will be recognized by employees and vice versa, but neither will have a real connection to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart will be allowed to raise its prices or stop serving products that are favored by community members and neither employee nor customer will have much ability to protest through moving jobs nor shopping at a different store.

Another issue is the need for genetic modification or chemical preservation of food to extend its shelf life. If you as a shopper go to the grocery once a week due to it being an inconvenient and time-consuming process, then your fruit and vegetables need to be able to last for at least that amount of time. Yes, it is incredible that produce does not go bad as quickly, but this, unfortunately, comes at a cost to our health and nutrition.

We are also more likely to buy shit we don’t need if we go to a store that has everything. I am generally fairly immune to this problem as I hate buying things, but not everyone is turned off by consumption. Seeing that shiny new video game or the latest AR-15 on sale when you were just supposed to be buying carrots and milk can cause many consumers to go home with more than they planned on. Although you probably needed that AR-15 anyway, you may not have been ready and now you’ve got marital problems. Luckily these problems can also be solved by that nice new gun that you bought.

Gun Section of Walmart

Obviously we are consuming fuel, depreciating our vehicles, or could get into an accident everytime that we go to the grocery in the US increasing the cost of our food shopping as well as being exposed to unnecessary risk.

Lastly, we lose a connection to our community. Financially, every dollar spent at Wal-Mart or Kroger sees some percentage go off to the executives and middle managers in some major city. I resent this as someone from an economically depressed area who has lived in a few different developing countries. I hate looking around at all of the national chains near Ashland, KY and international conglomerates in Morocco, Bolivia, and Argentina (This could be another article for The Walking Gringo). We also lose the ability to watch the success of some entrepreneur who wants to open up a butchery, wine shop, vegetable shop, etc.. As it is extremely hard to compete unless you have some sort of overpriced, boutique store. We can try to help support local businesses, but, when they are forced to charge exorbitant prices to stay afloat, not many American consumers will be able to support them for long.

Although there are equivalents to Wal-Mart or Kroger here, I rarely go to these “supermercados.” Buenos Aires being incredibly walkable allows me to pick up one item on the way home without losing much more than a minute of time. On the way home from classes last week, I picked up the vegetables needed for a salad on Monday, bananas Tuesday, our meat for the week Wednesday, rice and cheese Thursday, and more fruit on Friday. Picking up food so frequently allows us to eat produce that has been less processed to survive in the fridge, to be spontaneous about what we are eating throughout the week, and to speak in Spanish with the shop owners. The frequent visits to different stores increases the amount of times that I am seen by those working there. Right now I am recognized at 5 different businesses on the block on which I live.

Harder to buy semi-automatic weapons here

The two fruit and vegetable shops. The personal, economic example I am living. There is one operated by a couple in their 40’s and another operated by a guy closer to my age. The couple always has parsley and mint, a rarity in the other, and asks how I am and how my Spanish is coming along. I have had a few nice conversations with them over the past year, but they do insist on putting our purchases in a plastic bag and adding up our total by hand with a pencil. These minor inconveniences have seen me walk to the other guy more often lately. He is polite but doesn’t say much more than hello which is nice when I am not in the mood to talk. He also helps me fill up the cloth bag while calculating the total with a scale/calculator combination. He still recognizes me even though we talk less. His shop is only about 10 yards further than the couple and this convenience allows me to make my minor protest and enjoy my shopping experience more with him.

A few of us changing our behavior on the block would make a significant difference in the business of both of these shops which gives me the impression that they would be more open to hearing criticism if I were to offer it. It also means that by shopping there as opposed to the supermarket, I am contributing more directly to the success of the person I am interacting with.

This all makes life more “personal” here. I am by no means an expert in Spanish and have only lived in Buenos Aires for a year, but I feel more known on my block here than I would visiting most of the businesses in my hometown. I know that this has some psychological effect and that Americans have to work harder to find or build community where they live due to the de-personalization of the places that they are used to frequenting.

I know Americans love their “capitalism", but damn is it hard to compete with these major corporations. Dependence on a few national chains isn’t the type of economic system that Americans think that they love. This is a disappointing reality of our isolating, car-dependent way of living that is killing us in so many ways (depression, obesity, climate change, etc.). I know that opening a bunch of reasonably priced specialty shops to fight this dependence wouldn’t even help because our cities aren’t designed for it, but we should rethink how our cities are designed and increase density so that wonderful things like my weekly grocery shopping experience can be a reality for Americans outside of New York City. Sure, a lot would need to change for most people living in a town the size of Ashland to walk 20 yards to buy fruits and vegetables, but it is certainly possible and something to hope for.

Bonus: Luciana giving me a haircut