The Ins and Outs of Shopping

This next reader’s choice post is dedicated to Mrs. Peterson, who wanted to know about shopping in Spain. So of course, to adequately prepare a post on the subject, I had to go shopping to take pictures… and experience the process of buying things… Actually, because shopping can lead to a variety of interesting experiences, I need to do it every so often so I don’t get intimidated. Yeah, it sounds like a cheesy excuse, but I’ll give you a glimpse into my experience yesterday…

My list consists of blank DVDs to back up my photos, a battery charger that works well with Spain’s voltage, and a nice short-sleeve shirt to wear to work (only so much fits in a suitcase, ya know?). But there are really no big stores here like Wal-mart, so I’ll have to go to several different ones. Fortunately, the main shopping streets are located in the center of the city near the university. The stores are like the houses here: they are all two-story old buildings joined together on both sides of the street, but you can’t go from one building to the other on the inside. I enter a small electronics shop but they don’t sell much and what they have is expensive. So I go down to another street to a large electronics store, but when I walk in, I don’t know where anything is so I have to ask an employee. When I find the blank DVDs, there is a whole rack of them, most of them different than what I’ve seen in America. How do I choose from a whole rack? I turn to the guy next to me and ask what the difference is between some of them, mostly understand his reply, and pick one, hoping it will work with both the European computers at work and my American one (not all of them do). Next, I look for a battery charger… ug, there is no way I am paying 25 euros for that little thing! On to the next larger store that has electronics stuff, navigating between microwaves and dishes to find the battery chargers. I proceed to a cash register in the wrong part of the store and listen as the employee rattles off the directions to the right one. After paying, I head off to Calle Sierpes and Tetuan, two parallel streets famous for clothing. I might find a good deal, might not… stores here don’t randomly have sales like they do in America. There are only sales two times a year when all the stores in town hold sales to get rid of what is left from the winter/summer season. I go in a store that looks decent and find a couple different shirts that might work. Clothes here are organized by color, not by style, which can be nice when you want to buy an outfit of things that go together, but since I don’t, I pick out a shirt in the blue section and then head over to the red section to find the same shirt in that color. Hmmm… sizes are different here, what size am I again? Since I don’t completely remember and it can depend, I grab one of two sizes and look for the sign that says “Probadores.” I go in and tell the girl I want to try these 3 shirts on and she tells me which dressing room to go into. Huh. Evidently I more or less wear the same number in shirts, pants, and shoes here. Great when you can remember the number. I go out, hand the ones I don’t want to the girl, explain that they don’t fit well, and go to the cash register. Do you take credit card? Great. Identification? Here’s my American driver’s license. Wait, what is the problem with my credit card? Okay I’ll wait… and wait… and the home office can help? Great, thanks a lot, see you later. And that was my shopping experience. You see why I can get intimidated?
But people in Spain do like to shop, and as appearances are evidently very important here, there are tons of shops for clothing. There are big fashion chains like Mango, Zara, and H&M, but smaller ones too. And since the buildings are smaller, there is often a shop on one street for women and on another street for men. I’ve seen several of these same stores scattered around town so you don’t have to walk terribly far to get to them. Shoes are really big here too, in fact, there is a street people nickname “Calle Zapato” because almost all the stores on it are shoe stores! There is also a mall north of town with a bunch of stores, restaurants, and a movie theater, but malls aren’t big here. Some mornings or evenings in areas around town there are also markets where you can get cheap accessories or used items (every Thursday morning there is a flea market on my street and a fish/fruit market in a plaza nearby). All the tourist shops are around the cathedral and by the river, but I haven’t really been in those yet.
I also see tons of shops very particular to Spanish culture. There are a million stores that sell Flamenco dresses and accessories to go with them like hair combs, flowers, big earrings, and bracelets. There are also many shops selling religious (Catholic) statues, books, and items like that, as well as ceramic shops selling anything from wall tiles to sinks to vases.
The problem with shopping in Spain, unfortunately, is that the euro is worth a lot more than the dollar. So I really haven’t bought much at all. I hear it’s good to get clothes here so you can be ahead of the game but I always think about how much cheaper they will be when they come to America. Plus, I haven’t found the quality of things to be great here. I bought a red shirt a while ago, but only after it turned everything under it and over it red did I find out you have to soak them in salt water to set the dye. I’m not used to having to finish manufacturing my clothes… but it does look nice. There are a few things you can’t get here, but mainly in the way of food: peanut butter, brown sugar, popcorn (it exists but in short supply), and Chinese food. I believe that exhausts the topic of shopping! Love you all! Leave me posts!