El Buen Fin – A little insight on Mexico’s version of Black Friday

So last week I heard the news about “El Buen Fin” (Meaning “The good weekend” which can also be understood as “The good purpose”) that’s taking place here in Mexico since the beginning of this weekend and up until tomorrow. What’s all the deal about? It’s basically the same as Black Friday: many stores give this extraordinarily crazy discounts on most of their goods and people shop away as much as they can! Still, I was confused.

– But wait… Isn’t Thanksgiving supposed to be next Thursday?

– Yeah, but el Buen Fin is THIS weekend!

-THE WHOLE WEEKEND? Wasn’t it supposed to be only on Friday?

– Yeah, but that’s in the United States, HERE it will be from the 18th to the 21st of November!

At first I thought I was being pranked, or that maybe  some of it was true, but that it would be all the way until next friday, and only in the states that are closer to the border since Thanksgiving and Black Friday are two events that aren’t very common in the center/south of Mexico. Later on I was proved wrong by all the signs on the streets.

This is some pretty hardcore stuff! After seeing all the ads here I decided to look up some information on the Internet, and sure enough, the first thing that pops up when you type “El Buen Fin” is their very own (and pretty elaborate) website that apparently spawned overnight, as well as several news reports which indicate President Calderón himself twitted about El Buen Fin. So this Buen Fin thing is happening all over Mexico!

There is some serious money involved to set in motion such a huge strategy, and the list of organizers include the Federal Government, Mexico’s Bank Association, and CONCANACO (National Chamber of Commerce) just to name a few. The purpose of the Buen Fin according to their own site and the President is to activate the economy by encouraging shopping and at the same time, giving all the consumers the benefits of great deals for their money. This is supposed to be not only a one time thing, but a yearly tradition as Black Friday is in the United States.

How does it seem to be going this year?

Honestly, I don’t quite know. Yesterday we went to a shopping mall for a few groceries and the line at Wal-Mart was so ridiculously long we decided to just go to a small abarrote store, the whole shopping mall was overflowing with people. I guess it was the Buen Fin combined with the fact that is was also a saturday afternoon, but out of all those people how many of them are taking advantage of the discounts and how many simply felt like going to mall to watch a movie at the theatre is hard to tell. After all, although many stores seem to be offering huge discounts, this is basically something new in this country and it’s an event we weren’t really looking forward to earlier this year (because it didn’t exist!) so it sort of caught us unprepared, and also, it’s not a new thing for stores to announce discounts every few months that aren’t really that great, so I guess some of us are a little skeptical about it now. Anyway, since the Buen Fin is still in course, there haven’t been any news about sales increase, so we’ll have to wait and see 😉

Is this an effective strategy to activate the economy, or will it be cause trouble in the long run?

Something that we need to keep in mind is the fact that many electric appliances, telephones and cars tend to be pricier here than in comparison to the United States, and this is especially true for the states that are farthest away from the U.S. border, so we have the two sides of the coin: On one side, we will have extremely high discounts on many things that otherwise are quite expensive to purchase, but on the other side, this prices might still be to expensive for some of us to pay with cold hard cash, so many will resort to using a credit card or a loan, which might cause people to pay just as much on high interest rates, or even worse, get tangled with credit card debt.

Then another thing that pops to my head is, what will happen in subsequent years? This year the big discounts came by unexpected and some of us learned what this deal was all about on the very same day it started, and it seems it still managed to attract a lot of people, but if the plan for El Buen Fin is to make it a yearly tradition, us – and our wallets – will be ready by then, and so may be the chaos! I remember in 2008 when a Wal-Mart store employee was trampled to death on a Black Friday, and although this seems to be the only casualty so far, it is also known that things can get pretty crazy when everyone’s trying to score a great and inexpensive holiday present for their loved ones! But then again, in the United States the sales are held only for one Friday, so maybe if the Buen Fin sales spread out in three days people will be less rushed? I guess at this point all we can do is speculate and wonder what will the Buen Fin evolve into? Or will it be something that will it fade away?

Share your thoughts! Your comments and opinions are very welcome ;)!

Greeting people – The kiss of a very awkward moment?

So a while back I was working at a Call Center as a Customer Service Rep at Bank of America. And it was pretty cool! I got to talk on the phone all day with different people so I never got bored, and I felt good to do everything I could to help them with their account issues.

One of the things that were also really fun was having uptraining with senior account managers that came from the United States to teach us about any changes in policy, or other things we needed to uptrain about. They’d usually stay for about two or three weeks in a Hotel and would help us by giving feedback and advice on how to assist the customers.

I remember on one ocassion, a very nice lady that came for from the United States to give the uptraining sessions came to me and other friends in the cafeteria. She had a very worried look about her. After my friends went over to get dessert, she leaned closer and told me she was worried about a particular worker who may have tried to harass her.

What?! I couldn’t believe it! I knew this guy for a while and I couldn’t think of him as doing something like that! I was worried  and asked her to explain what had happened and why he had been inaproppiate.

“Well” She said “earlier this morning when I came in to work I ran into him in the hall.  But when I went closer to greet him, he held my hand and kissed me!”

I was baffled at first, but later I learned that our friend had actually kissed her in her cheek, so I explained to our uptrainer that it is very common here in Mexico to greet people we like in this way. I know that this is also done in the United States, but it’s not as common as it is here. It’s one of those things where there are no written rules, and it may be different between one person or another, but we do it basically in a daily basis, depending on who we meet.

I will try to sum it up the easiest way possible:

– When you meet someone for the very first time, the greeting will largely depend on the context. For example, if you meet someone in a formal or working enviroment, the first greeting will most likely be a formal handshake, and depending on the kind of relationship that will result later, it could either derive into only formal handshakes, or kiss greeting.

– Full lip to cheek contact is not necessary, and actually, seldom done (if you do, try to keep your kiss dry, no one likes a wet cheek!). It’s more like putting both cheeks toghether and making a smooch sound, and it’s not a long kiss either!. Sometimes it is even done in a diva “muah muah” gesture in both cheeks, depticting fakeness as a joke between friends. Kisses in both cheeks aren’t really customary or common here, but if you see a particular person do that to everyone, you might as well roll with it 😉

– If you are introduced to someone by a very dear friend of yours, and if it is a joyous ocassion such as a party or other social meeting, a kiss greeting may be applied.

– Greeting with a kiss is usually done only the first time you see someone in the day. For example, if you meet with a friend of yours at school but have different classes toghether, you don’t greet her with a kiss every time you see each other within classes. The greetings would be infinite otherwise!

– If you meet very dear friends of yours, or friends you haven’t seen in a very long time, hug and kiss greeting! 

– Also, we kiss in the cheeks when we are leaving for the day. If there are a group of people we usually say goodbye to each person individually with a kiss, unless of course you’re in a very big hurry and are at some distance, then you can do a general wave-goodbye and leave. But if you’re saying goodbye to everyone individually it can be rude to skip one person.

– If you are a girl you can kiss your girlfriends as a greeting or as goodbye , as well as boys. If you are a guy it is considered correct to greet or say goodbye to girls with a kiss in the cheek as well. Guys usually don’t greet or say by to eachother with a kiss. A firm handshake and a hug/pat on back will suffice for them!

Anyway, that’s all I can think of now! So tell me, have you ever done a kiss greeting? Have you had any awkward moments?  If you have friends or dear aquaintances here in Mexico you might as well have a little fun and try kiss greeting someone! Just take a deep breath, don’t hesitate and smooch away! It’s actually pretty easy to pick up on how and when it’s appropiate, and hey! They even say it’s healthy to receive a number of hugs and kisses per day! 😉

If you have any other comments, also feel free to post as well!

Literary Calaveras for the Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead is here! There are many activities and traditions to do in this Holiday, and the one activity that I’ll write about today are the Litetary Calaveras.

Calavera means skeleton in Spanish and it’s a tradition for the Day of the Dead, it’s a popular rhyme about how a person meets with Death (Usually the Lady Death, also called Katrina).This verses can be about people who are dear to you, as well as public figures, such as famous artists, politicians or a particular group of people, but they are also used to describe a political, natural or social event. When writing a Calavera you will include the traits, either qualities, abilities or personality of the person you are writing the Calavera about, thus making them unique for each person.

These rhymes originally started as ways to make fun of Death, and the earliest forms are actually epitaphs written by Jorge Manrique in the 1400’s. The first Calaveras to be published where in the form of cartoons that came with verses depicting the cause of death in a joyous manner.

I know it may sound a little bit creepy and you may think “who would want to write about how someone dies?” But remember these verses are written with a light heart and are usually irreverent, clever, and fun. It is a custom on the Day of the Dead to write these in honor to someone who is alive, and the intention is to amuse people by making verses about someone we like. It is usually apreciated when someone has the time and patience to write a Calavera about you :).

Being verses that anyone can write about anyone, the possibilities are endless! One very common story is that Katrina (Death as it is usually depicted in the Day of the Dead) comes looking for the person we are writing about (Sometimes it’s because Katrina is jealous of that person’s qualities, others because she needs their specific talent in the other world, and others just out of pure whim and because it’s Death we’re talking about!) and after either trying to make a bargain with Death, or being caught in a trap set by her, or one way or another, that person ends up in Katrina’s company! But like I said, it all depends on the style of the writer…

So now that you know what Calaveras are why don’t you try writing some for your friends and family? You can make a Calavera contest at home and award the funniest ones!

Have a happy Day of the Dead everyone ;)!