OR REASON 1,654, 291 WHY I LIVE HERE
So, I strolled up my street to the little abarrote and fruteria
(mom and pop market and fruit store) on the corner.
I got a half kilo of roasted peanuts, 2 sweet mandarins,
five Dominica bananas, and a large heavy
ripe cantaloupe.
Total cost - 38 pesos or $2.75 US.
But wait! That's not the story!
The story is. . .when I put the cantaloupe on the scale
the girl said "Oh no, Señora, this one has a bad spot,
let me get a better one," and off she went to the display
to find one without a bad spot.
There wasn't one.
They were all over ripe and perfect for an
Agua Melón (melon water) which is what I wanted it for.
So back she comes to the scale, takes out her knife
and promptly cuts out the 'bad spot', THEN
weighs it, bags up my purchases and hands them over
with a smile and a gracias.
No charge for the bad spot.
One of the great things about living here is the abundance of fruits and vegetables at affordable prices. My health has steadily improved since living here simply because we eat more fruits and vegetables. If we were to do that NOB, first of all the quality would suck and the prices would be at least 3 to 4 times the amount. We have daily fruit plates for breakfast, fruit drinks and daily carrot or beet juice via the juicer. That in-itself would be unaffordable NOB on a daily basic.
ReplyDeleteI love this story. So logical and easy. In the US they'd probably throw that delicious melon in the dumpster, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's also wonderful that the fruteria is so handy! That's another wonderful thing about MX.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing as Nancy. So much gets thrown away in The States.
ReplyDeleteBut I have a tale a bit different. My local neighborhood store in Villa Obregon was throwing away a bag of three romaine lettuce heads. They were in terrible shape. But I knew I could salvage a few inner leaves for sandwiches. I offered to buy it. The cost? The full price marked on the bag.
Hope you are able and willing to post more in 2012
ReplyDeleteSweet, indeed. I frequent a fruit stand regularly, and I get free extras all of the time. I love the little extra time he takes to make my day special!
ReplyDelete