I live in one of the central comunas in Santiago, a very “right down the middle” kind of place socioeconomically. I feel so popular, because it is becoming one of the “it” comunas to live in for a couple reasons. It’s safer than that the comunas south and west, there will be (2) metro lines running through it in 5-7 years time, and housing costs are within reach of those wanting to leave the neighboring comunas. However, as any good economic student knows, high demand, low supply…and generally higher costs. Compared to five years ago, it is hard to find an reasonably priced, non-tiny apartment in Ñuñoa, and the housing market in Santiago in general is very competitive. Since there is so much demand for living in Ñuñoa, contractors and jumping on opportunities to buy old, beautiful houses, demolishing them and building gigantic, overpriced, unoriginal, and generally ugly apartment buildings. Your apartment may be only 30 m2, but you get a doorman, a swimming pool 3x the size of an average bathtub, and a multipurpose room for birthday parties, because your apartment is too small to host anything there. Can you see I’m not a big fan?
I mean, you’ve got a great view, but you can’t get out of bed…it’s the price that “luxury” comes with, so stop complaining.
Is this the hallway or the living room?
Okay, forgive my tangent. I’ve developed this opinion after years of being around a man that would live on the streets before living in one of these buildings. Just for the principle of it. So I think he rubbed off on me.
What my point is, is that my dad made an astute observation while they were here. “There are a lot of mini markets, corner hardware stores, vegetable and fruit stands, little pharmacies, etc around here” He’s right. If I need an onion, I walk across the street and get one at the vegetable market. If I want a quick meal, I walk two blocks and buy some empanadas at the bakery. If we are getting ready to eat dinner and decide we want a Coke, Andrés walks next door to the mini market and picks one up. “Little things” are never more than three blocks away for us.
Santiago is changing. The economy is growing, people are now generally more interested in “big” than “little” (sound like another country we know of?). For example, I work in a completely different world than where I live. If I need a quick something to eat, I have to walk into the massive mall across the street because it’s the closest thing to my office. Granted, it’s convenient, but it doesn’t mean I love supporting the massively Americanized grocery store chain. I just only have 10 minutes to get what I need.
Still, just because there are these Wal-Mart sized grocery stores, mini-replicas of the Mall of America, and corner strip malls with chain pharmacies, mini markets and dry cleaners, doesn’t mean the small businesses are just packing their things and giving up. They have faithful clients, offer competitive pricing versus the chains, and offer higher quality. Win-Win-Win, as Michael Scott would say. And even though these big malls and bigger grocery stores and these-and-that chains are popping up like radishes, doesn’t necessarily mean they are full. For example, every Saturday and Wednesday there is a fruit and vegetable “feria” where vendors line a street selling real, fresh, farm-grown products. It’s always packed. After getting what we needed for the week, we walked across the street to get some spaghetti at the grocery store: empty. If you can follow Spanish, look at the news report I saw yesterday highlighting this issue:
I hear a lot about Chileans saying they are losing or that they are feeling identity confusion because of their desire and demand to have things more American, but I think the small businesses and Saturday ferias here are a good representation of Chileans fighting to keep America out of their business. Literally.
Keep it up, guys.
she's back in chile 