Disposable

The Chinese are coming to Barcelona. One by one they are taking over the shops. When I arrived here four years ago they already occupied the small todo a cien shops where everything used to cost one hundred pesetas, turned into miniature department stores for the wonderous plastic junk their country is producing. They have everything there, but the idea of having everything always scares me. Then they conquered the shoeshops to offer us the possibility of buying their amazingly unfashionable footwear and their more successful suitcases. Next came the bars, ever more of which are run by Chinese families. Enter a daytime bar and you probably will find a very Chinese looking young man struggling behind a coffee machine. Latest target are the fruit shops. Wherever a grocer’s can’t bear the burden of minimal profit any longer, a Chinese is stepping in to give it a go. Continuing business by lowering the standards of quality and price seems to be the preferred strategy, an old Chinese idea perhaps that appeals to households with growing problems to make ends meet. The Chinese do not seem to have a particular demanding vending style. Don’t expect any can I help yous, what are we looking fors or might I suggest our special offers. Whether you enter or not is up to you, they only act when you actually start buying. Going into a todo chino means browsing the rows in silence, giving yourself the sensation of fulfilling your plight as a consumer by purchasing crap for practically nothing which you know you are going to throw away soon, probably without even having used it. But that is just what shopping is all about, I guess, that you buy.