Grocery store concierge

Something I find funny here in Costa Rica is when you’re grocery shopping and women stand in the aisles and try to sell you certain products. Patrick used to always be convinced they were there as a form of theft prevention.

One day in December while in the Escazu Hipermas, I wanted to try some different coffee and two women were in the aisle pushing different brands. I had one brand in my hand but it seemed more expensive than other brands even though it was on sale. The woman trying to sell it only spoke Spanish and I didn’t care enough to try to translate so I politely ignored her. Another woman pushing a different brand spoke some English. She was more aggressive and eventually convinced me to buy the brand she was selling. I put back the original bag of the sale brand I had in my hand and grabbed two of the other brand.

When we left the coffee aisle, Patrick said the woman that couldn’t speak English was so upset I didn’t buy her brand of coffee that she was nearly in tears. I thought he was kidding but when we got home that afternoon he was snickering as he put the coffee away. I asked him what was so funny and he said he didn’t know why I didn’t just get that more expensive coffee so the woman wouldn’t be so upset. I was furious and feeling horrible because I really thought he was joking while we were at the store. If I knew I had made that woman cry, I would have at least bought one of each coffee.

I guess they must work on commission? Did I mention they sometimes give samples of alcohol in the middle of the weekday?

As a side note, after Patrick read this post he pointed out that he still thinks the women are there to prevent theft.