Mexico, Travel »
To market, to market
August 3, 2020 | 2 Comments | Betsy Woodman
“We shop at the Bodega,” I told an American that I met in San Miguel de Allende. Her lip curled. She wanted to know why we didn’t go to the upscale supermarket patronized by lots of expats. 
Simple–it was too far away, whereas we could walk to the Bodega. Granted, the shortcut from the Bat Casa was a path where you had to brace yourself to keep from skidding on the downhill parts.
Once there, however, we found that the megastore had everything we needed, and a lot more. It sold washing machines, computers, bicycles, furniture, gardening supplies…plus the full range of groceries needed for, as a teacher of mine used to put it, our “life support system.”
With its steel girders overhead, neon lights, and pallets stacked with crates, the Bodega wasn’t a particularly cozy place to hang out. However, you could generally check off everything on your list…
even if it was a specific sort of yogurt.
Checkout could present some startling moments. $810 seemed an alarming tab, until we figured out that it meant 810 pesos–about 45 USD at the time. That was a major shop, meriting a taxi ride home.
Sometimes, however, we’d trudge back up the path, bundles and all. It was not a long walk, but still a relief when the Bat Casa came into view at the top of the hill. Home again, home again.
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When we lived in Doha for two years, we found the best way to transport our groceries home of the Carrefour store was in a wheeled backpack. The store wasn’t too far away, but the heat made it somewhat imperative to arrive home quickly!
We also learned that items were not always available, leading to the habit of buying more than one immediately needed in case it wasn’t available later.
There were some “Indian Stores” used by day laborers, where items were cheaper, and we used those when we could.
The really fanciest stores were designed for expats and had largely American brand names; we went a few times with friends who had cars, but it seemed a little surreal.
Wow! I’ve known anyone who had lived in Doha. I can see you trudging along rolling the backpack.
As we got more familiar with the neighborhood in San Miguel, we found lots of little stores, including a well-organized fruit and vegetable stall with 15 cent mangoes and cheap papayas. Plus a fabulous weekly market. I’ll post some photos of that next time.