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January 11, 2007
Single-Size Me!
There used to be a cultural reference between the state of Texas and ridiculously enormous sizes. Cartoons, novelty songs and even commercials would make use of this joke, based on the size of the state, as well as other things for which the place was famous, such as longhorn cattle, big trucks, or huge oil rigs that thrust skyward. It was not a far leap for such an association to be taken to imply enhanced masculinity, and subsequently, increased sexual virility. It does seem silly to associate the landmass of ones home territory to his sexual superiority, I admit. Yet when you boil it down, it seems silly that one would make that association with a larger income, a bigger house or an SUV that can guzzle gas faster, but I suspect that we have all seen those compensation mechanisms in action.
As if the rest of the states were envious of Texas for its legendary Big Bend, a trend began with jumbo sizes being sold throughout the country. Not only could you super-size your Coca-Cola® at McDonalds®, but you could buy king-size containers of M&Ms®, Miracle Whip® and Mr. Clean® at super-size stores like Sam's Club and Costco. Studies indicate that bigger packaging results in greater consumption, an effect called unit bias in the psychological literature, so it's easy to understand why manufacturers of products would prefer to sell things in bigger packages. People may pay less per unit of weight, but then end up using more of the product overall.
Clearly, not all Americans are filling their shopping baskets with boxes of Tide® big enough to wash a load in Bank One Ballpark because of any perceived inadequacy in their other baskets, but with the overwhelming machismo the United States has forced upon the rest of the word with its big guns in the past few years, it makes one wonder if the entire country has something to prove. Whenever Shawn and I return to the United States for a visit, the single most shocking thing to us, whether we're in California or Massachusetts, is consistently not only the length to which a manufacturer will go to sell you a bigger box, but also the breadth of the selection offered to consumers. One can buy nearly any product not only in king-size, but in one of seven different exciting new flavors!
In contrast, it seems as if the entire nation of Mexico has been symbolically emasculated by manufacturers who offer their products only in small size packages and in limited styles. For example, with peanut butter that is manufactured in Mexico, the largest size I've found is a jar of 12 ounces. I have heard you can get "chunky" style, but I've never seen it at any of the stores where I buy groceries. Your average peanut butter container in the United States is 18 ounces, but you can easily get bigger ones. You can also get peanut butter that has reduced fat, comes from honey roasted peanuts, has candy bar chunks or jelly mixed into it, is organic, or has not been sweetened. While I tend to like my peanut butter relatively plain (okay, I admit, chunky would be nice), it's the fact that I can't buy a container that would last me over a week that annoys me.
Milk is a similar situation, unless you drink it whole. You cannot buy 2% (descremada) in gallon containers here, at least not in supermarkets or corner stores. The only kind of milk that comes in gallons is whole milk. Otherwise, you have to buy it in half-gallon containers. Shawn likes to drink skim milk, which is relatively hard to find. Only one company here produces it, Parmalat®, and you can only get it in aseptic packaging, which makes it not only more expensive, but it means you can only buy it in one-liter boxes (which is even less than a half-gallon). One of those doesn't last a day in our house.
Butter can be bought in boxes of four sticks at larger supermarkets, but it's usually sold by the stick at corner grocery stores. Boxes of cream cheese are about half the size that they are in the United States. A bag of whole-bean coffee at Starbucks® is 250 grams, or about half a pound. Candy bars made in Mexico are tiny little sticks that are 3/4 of an ounce (about 1/2 the size of a Hershey® bar). Razor blades that come in packages of four in the United States and Canada come in packs of two here (it even comes in the case that is made for four, but it's only half full). The biggest bottle of ibuprofen one can buy here contains 100 tablets, and that costs about USD $15.00. Spindles of blank DVDs only come in sizes of 25 or 50. Coca-Cola® has even come out with a smaller-than-average size of can for certain drinks (most of them diet) that they call "Espacio Leve." These are 10.9 ounces, for those who are overwhelmed by that extra 1.1 ounces in a regular can.
With some items, there are good reasons for the smaller packages. For example, many people have limited freezer and refrigerator space, so the fact that packages of frozen potato products (like french fries) come in packages that are 1/2 the size that they are in the US and Canada makes sense. Otherwise, you'd use up half your freezer just for a bag of french fries. Also, it's easier for many people to afford the cost of buying something when one can buy just a little bit of it. If manufacturers only sold things in very large packages, many people would not be able to buy a whole package.
Yet other small packaging is just frustrating and annoying. Take for example the Espacio Leve line by Coca-Cola®: these are mostly diet versions of sodas that they sell in regular size cans and bottles, like diet Fanta®, apple, or even Fresca® (in Mexico, the regular Fresca® is sweetened with sugar and is hardly a diet soda). Using artificial sweeteners costs more, so instead of taking a cut on their margins to sell diet sodas, they sell you a smaller size at the same price. Getting 1/2 the number of razor blades in a package is also annoying, because they're the same size as the four-packs, but you have to buy two packs to get four. Smaller packaging promotes more trial purchasing, but when you know what you want and you know you'll use a fair amount of it, it's just downright obnoxious to have to buy, carry and store six little bags instead of just one big one.
Certainly the super-size phenomenon in the United States has its down side, in promoting obesity, overconsumption and affluenza. Yet the single-size phenomenon in Mexico also causes problems, like the generation of more trash and just being a downright hassle sometimes. Not to worry though. Always swift to assist less fortunate nations, the corporations of the United States, such as Costco® and Sam's Club®, has been taking Mexico by storm, permitting Mexicans to buy olive oil, soy sauce and mustard in gallon containers. In fact, in some cases, these warehouse stores are the only places where one can buy certain products that are otherwise hard to find here, like Tide-To-Go® laundry markers, mayonnaise without lime juice in it, and lemons. Just as often though, these stores serve as the dumping grounds for what consumers in Canada and the US don't buy, so they'll have a great deal on Gatorade® powder, but only the nasty lemon-lime flavor. You couldn't find a can of orange to save your life. So these stores, while providing Mexicans with some opportunity for king-sized consumerism, fail to deliver of the wealth of options to them that consumers in the United States and Canada enjoy. This is a recurring theme with American businesses and their Mexican branches: gladly take Mexicans' money, but don't give them the same level of service.
Ah, but when all else fails, one can do what many Mexicans do and make a road trip to Texas for the sole purpose of buying things one can't get here, or can't get big enough.
Posted by crispy at January 11, 2007 10:42 AM
Comments
Here in Alaska, you can have a 'McKiley Mac' (Mt. McKinley), High blood pressure,heart disease included!
Posted by: Jon at January 11, 2007 12:08 PM
But everything IS bigger in Texass, doncha know! Especially my debt.......!
Posted by: Carol at January 11, 2007 07:10 PM
...except for politicians, the best things eventually leave the state of Texas. (about those politicians: bigger doesn't mean smarter)
A Noble Spirit Embiggens the Smallest Texan.
As Gov. Bush knew... it's a perfectly cromulent word.
Posted by: brett at January 20, 2007 04:50 PM
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- This copyright warning is copyrighted: ©snpp.com
Posted by: Anonymous at January 20, 2007 05:00 PM
You make some astute observations, but use them to draw (IMHO) conclusions based on your own frame of reference, not on the Mexican experience.
Like most of Europe, *most* of Mexico does not stockpile. Most of Mexico, regardless of socio-economic stratum, still shops today for today, not for today, tomorrow, and next month. Mexico doesn't plan for a headache three months from now by buying a 1000-tablet twin-pack of Costco ibuprofen. Mexico gets a headache, goes to its corner store and buys two aspirin, or four if the headache's a doozy. In fact, most of Mexico doesn't have a Costco, although some of Mexico does, and most of Mexico, contrary to our multi-Wal-Mart experience in Guadalajara, doesn't have a Wal-Mart.
Most of Mexico sends its child to the corner store for a single roll of toilet paper when the old roll is finished, sometimes while Papá sits on the pot waiting for the child to come back. Most of Mexico buys its chicken this morning to prepare today's comida--most of Mexico doesn't want a Family Pak of assorted chicken parts. Most of Mexico buys one razor blade at a time--after all, how many can I use at once?
A goodly part of Mexico has no refrigerator, so why would it want milk in gallons? In many rural parts of Mexico, the milkman still hoves up to your door on horseback, a huge stainless steel milk can hanging on either side of the saddle's pommel. You bring your liter container out there and he ladles fresh milk for you. You want skim? Take the cream off the top yourself. And if you're not planning to use much milk today, you buy half a liter.
Most of Mexico still doesn't trust or use frozen products. You want peas for comida? You take your basket to the street market and buy fresh peas, still in the pod. You want french fries? Ditto, but buy fresh potatoes. You need celery? I've never seen a Mexican housewife buy a whole head of celery, not even in Wal-Mart where the celeries are pre-packaged in plastic sleeves. Celery may be packaged in a plastic sleeve, but it's sold by the kilo. Take one stalk, or three, but not the whole thing.
So the bottom line of thinking small in Mexico is based on shopping for today, not on squirreling away a cupboard of provender for tomorrow. Compare shopping in Mexico with shopping in Spain, or in France. The United States is a thing unto itself, a land of marketing and sales techniques based on creating wants, not fulfiling needs.
Posted by: Cristina at January 20, 2007 05:38 PM
Excellent point(s), Cristina. That's so beautifully put, it hurts.
Our friends Larry and Joseph recently went to Buenos Aires, and their experience backs up Cristina's view completely. Supermarkets do not exist there, or at least they don't exist in the city center. One has to go to the little cheese shop on the corner to buy cheese, a little local meat shop to buy meat, and a little section of the shop next door sells some vegetables. While this sounds quaint and charming, it's a real pain in the neck, especially for those of us without cars. Argentina is still very old world, where Mexico is part of North America, and the influence of the United States is very great here. It's not as much of an America Junior as Canada, but you'd probably be surprised.
Cristina is right that Guadalajara is much different from most of Mexico in that we have big warehouse stores and supermarkets. Most places in Mexico do not. However, I chose to live in Mexico's second biggest city for that reason: I want to have big city conveniences. However, one should note that being a blog on Mexico, this blog is VERY heavily biased towards metropolitan Mexico.
And I think it points out something that should be noted about by personal biases: there are some aspects about the United States that I adore. It's just the small-minded bigotry and creeping (leaping?) authoritarianism that I hate. It isn't to say that there are not things about Mexico that are 100% Mexican that I love when I say that there are some things about Mexico that are 100% estadounidense that I love, like Starbucks®. I'd prefer to go to an independent mom-and-pop coffee shop here, but so far, it has been my experience that Mexicans do not do coffee well. Many Mexicans think that Nescafé® is good coffee. Therefore, when I'm in the mood for a really good, strong cup of coffee, I have to go to Starbucks. And believe me folks, I never thought I would be glad to have a Starbucks® in my neighborhood.
No, Mexico, or at least our beautiful city of Guadalajara, is in a state of transition from the one Cristina talks about to one that is much more like a city in the United States. The problem I have is that I don't live in a neighborhood where they have all the component stores nearby like the situation Cristina describes. We do have a corner market that has only two kinds of cheese and some really tired produce. They also sell tortillas there that rock, which is good because the tortillaría next door sucks. But we have no cremería in our neighborhood, and it's a good 40 minute walk to and from the store that sells vegetarian chorizo and soy products. And Shawn takes multiple ibuprofen every day, so buying it at the corner store as he needs it is impractical and expensive.
For me, a supermarket is a must. What with being a vegetarian and with Shawn being on a really restrictive diet, I can't make due on just what I can get within walking distance. And even if I had a car, I don't know that I'd want to be driving it every day to go to the market to buy the things I need. That uses a lot of gas and adds to Mexico's already terrible environmental situation.
For me, the Mexican experience is a city experience, not the average Mexican experience. Otherwise, I just couldn't handle it. I already complain about not being able to find a decent male strip joint here; can you imagine if I lived in a pueblito?
Posted by: Chris Coen at January 23, 2007 11:29 AM
I don't believe the Amerikan Machine is creating wants when I stock up on toilet paper. I don't have kids to buy my buttock wipe while I sit on the can, and I enjoy knowing I can wipe until I'm sore for the next month.
Consume!
Posted by: Mark Allen at January 24, 2007 05:22 AM