Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Greetings from Starbuck´s
07/25 11:29am La Gran Plaza, GDL, MX
For better or worse i have spent a lot of time in shopping malls in Mexico. I guess part of that is that people here want to show me what they think is best about where they live. they don´t want to take me to the taco place with a dirt floor where they slaughter their own chickens- exciting as that might be for a gringo.
The malls are quite nice. It´s actually a bit hard for me to understand why it´s so common for wealthy Mexicans to take trips to US cities just for the shopping. Of course, I am not really an expert on this type of consumerism. I couldn´t really tell you the difference between Sears and Neiman Marcus- perhaps it´s that finer sensability that brings Mexican shoppers to the malls of the US.
There are amny chain restaurants in Mexico. besides the worldwide fast-food places that you can expect to find everywhere, they also have Chili´s, Applebee´s, TOny Roma´s and others. There is also an Denny´s-like place called Vips that is unique to Mexico (I think) but it is owned by Wal-Mart.
I wonder why Mexico doesn´t have its own comprable restaurants. There are many nice restaurants but they don´t seem to be interested in becoming franchises. Mexico is far from incapable in the business world, many mexican companies are among the largest in the world.
I think the reason lies in that fact that both Mexicans well-off enough to eat in such places and Mexicans wealthy enough to invest in that type of business have a preferential bias towards American products. The substantial contact that Mexicans have with the US means that directly or indirectly they are familiar with places like Chili´s and so if given the choice between Chili´s and an unknown Mexican equivalent they would favor the Chili´s.
Mexican businessmen seeking a profit would also prefer to invest their money and/or time in a business that has been successful in the US or other part of the world. Probably with time the business men in Mexico who are currently working with US companies will learn from it and later seek to have their own business. Maybee too Mexican consumers will desire something that appeals more directly to their tastes.
¶ 10:33 AM 
07/25 11:29am La Gran Plaza, GDL, MX
For better or worse i have spent a lot of time in shopping malls in Mexico. I guess part of that is that people here want to show me what they think is best about where they live. they don´t want to take me to the taco place with a dirt floor where they slaughter their own chickens- exciting as that might be for a gringo.
The malls are quite nice. It´s actually a bit hard for me to understand why it´s so common for wealthy Mexicans to take trips to US cities just for the shopping. Of course, I am not really an expert on this type of consumerism. I couldn´t really tell you the difference between Sears and Neiman Marcus- perhaps it´s that finer sensability that brings Mexican shoppers to the malls of the US.
There are amny chain restaurants in Mexico. besides the worldwide fast-food places that you can expect to find everywhere, they also have Chili´s, Applebee´s, TOny Roma´s and others. There is also an Denny´s-like place called Vips that is unique to Mexico (I think) but it is owned by Wal-Mart.
I wonder why Mexico doesn´t have its own comprable restaurants. There are many nice restaurants but they don´t seem to be interested in becoming franchises. Mexico is far from incapable in the business world, many mexican companies are among the largest in the world.
I think the reason lies in that fact that both Mexicans well-off enough to eat in such places and Mexicans wealthy enough to invest in that type of business have a preferential bias towards American products. The substantial contact that Mexicans have with the US means that directly or indirectly they are familiar with places like Chili´s and so if given the choice between Chili´s and an unknown Mexican equivalent they would favor the Chili´s.
Mexican businessmen seeking a profit would also prefer to invest their money and/or time in a business that has been successful in the US or other part of the world. Probably with time the business men in Mexico who are currently working with US companies will learn from it and later seek to have their own business. Maybee too Mexican consumers will desire something that appeals more directly to their tastes.
¶ 10:33 AM
