Confessions of an American Shopaholic in Chile

Okay, it’s time to lay it all out on the table. It started with a little thing I like to call Líder. It seemed so practical at first, the ability to buy everything cheaply all in one place. Sure, it eerily resembled Wal-Mart, though not as sketchy. (Note: I apologize if Wal-Mart does not seem sketchy to you. If you would like to have a conversation about it later, fine, but that’s really not the point of this story, so, moving along…) Then I began noticing the font of the Líder signs, not to mention the striking similarity between Walmart and Líder slogans, the latter of which translated is: Always the lowest prices. Always. That’s right, “Attention world shoppers: Caitlin is shopping at Chilean Wal-Mart.” Somehow managing to justify recent purchases with the desperate situation of the stained comforter (see previous entries), I am still trying to cut back on my frequency of Líder trips.

My shopping problems do not end there, though. Yesterday, at the end of a pleasant day of café-ing with Ashley, we dashed into Ripley to see if they had anymore functional; much needed; and, most importantly, cheap turtlenecks. (Ripley and Falabella are the two big Chilean department stores. Unlike US department stores, Ripley and Falabella are where just about everyone goes for standard, classic clothing. Read: where I go when I’m missing the Gap. The quality is not quite as great, but it’s certainly not terrible. The prices are higher than in some small stores, but still drastically lower than in the states.) Somehow the fact that they didn’t have any turtlenecks didn’t stop me from buying two pairs of pants (complete with J. Crew style belts); a rugby style shirt; and a, if I do say so myself, rather slick zip-up sweater. Figuring I had done enough damage for one day and needing to finish my homework, I hopped on a micro and headed back home to Viña.

Not wasting an opportunity to be an obnoxious American, I was talking to my friend Maria on my cell phone on the micro, and it ran out of its prepaid minutes. Being as desperately attached to my cell phone as I am and noticing that the bus I was on went to the mall, I decided to skip my stop and go straight there to buy another cellular card. Somewhere, somehow, between the ride to the mall and the buying more minutes, I managed to get a tiny bit homesick. Deciding in this unwell state that I didn’t want to return home, I made the unwise decision to “window shop”. I had wanted to check out the prices of some US stores here, such as ZARA and Ralph Lauren and United Colors of Benetton, the last of which I entered casually. All of a sudden I was standing in line, holding a 30 USD corduroy and suede bag, nodding in agreement to the liquidation no-exchange policy. I walked out of the store, realizing what I had done (but - let’s face it - still loving my new bag). I made myself leave the mall right away, declaring a moratorium on shopping. Except for the next day in Pomeire, a pottery village, “‘cause, those are, like, souvenirs”; or anything really, really cute or really, really cheap…