Of all the things to be concerned about concerning changing apartments (will my stuff arrive? will it fit? will the internet ever be hooked up, is there a secret infestation of curly-antennae’d bugs? yes, yes, yes no), my mother was concerned about whether or not there would be a supermarket nearby. This is understandable, I suppose. First of all, in the United States, one tends to buy most of one’s food from the supermarket. Plus there are some neighborhoods in the US, even in major cities, where supermarket access is a concern. I don’t have a car, so certainly living far away from a supermarket with your United States brain on would seem like a problem. Though I do have a bike, and that’s nearly always what I use to go to the supermarket. My mother lives in the ‘burbs, and doesn’t ride a bike. All of it terribly understandable, really.
Have no fear. I have discovered, since moving to my new apartment that I am less than a ten minute bike ride from at least six supermarkets.
Santa Isabel on Huerfanos
Santa Isabel on Alameda
Santa Isabel on Cumming
Santa Isabel in Estación Central
Santa Isabel on Almirante Latorre
Tottus in Barrio Brasil
Tottus on Nataniel Cox
There are also smaller minimarkets, including the strangely-named Spin, which is very close by, and which claims to sell suchis. I have not eaten any suchis from there, but they have that Breden Master bread that is sweeping the city which means they pop it in the oven in the back and it’s fresh and piping hot several times a day. Yummy all white marraquetas. Just what your glycemic index ordered.
There’s also the handy OK-Market (no fresh food at all, strangely), the Tian-Yuan smallish market on Brasil, a new Unimarc that used to be something else on the Alameda near República, and a market called Linder in the same font as Lider over in Barrio Brasil. There’s probably more but you can be assured that there is no shortage of places to buy food in the new neighborhood. Also like the supermarkets in DC, all of which have silly code names like the Soviet Safeway (Dupont, 17th St) and the Social Safeway (Wisconsin Ave), I am working on a nomenclature system for each one of the supermarkets and/or minimarkets. Hint: the Estación Central Santa Isabel’s name will not have the word “safe” in it.
But choosing “my” super, in that I don’t have to leave the neighborhood to get there, that I have my favorite post to which to lock my bike (no, not those ridiculously useless bike lock up racks where the only thing you can lock is your front wheel, where do they think we are, some kind of bike-theft free zone?) is clearly the one on Almirante LaTorre. It has a bowling alley upstairs, and is across from a darned good sandwich shop. It’s also the only place where I’ve ever been that when they want to close out a cash register line, they give the last person in line a sign that says “Caja Cerrada” (register closed).
I think this is tremendously intelligent, stops people from getting cozy behind you and then having to listen to the cashier shout from three carts down “caja cerrada, está cerrada la caja“. Plus it was fun to have the sign in hand, hold it up and point at it. I also liked the fact that the cashier thought me worthy of explaining the protocol and handing the sign to. He didn’t wait for someone more obviously Chilean-looking to hand the sign to, just handed it to me, and said, “after you, the line’s closed.”
I call this my cachito de poder (tiny bit of power) because for a few minutes there, no one was getting through line number 14 without my approval. Unfortunately, I had to give the sign back when I left. It’s too bad because preventing people from standing behind me in line and hitting my feet with their cart or getting too close in general could be a great superpower. I guess I’ll just have to go back to the supermarket with more frequency. At least until I think of a good name for it.
I had to laugh at this because in San Francisco apparently there is the Singles’ Safeway that’s the hot place for 20-somethings to strike up a conversation over their organic produce.
That’s kind o fhte idea behind the Social Safeway on Wisconsin Ave in a nice area of DC, sort of upper Georgetown. I only went once or twice as it wasn’t close to where I lived. The Soviet Safeway, were you wondering, has long lines, and little on offer.
I would like to have that super power. I would use it (on/in/at not sure what word is correct here) the metro, and micros, that would be GREAT.
Good idea to use it on the metro or micro. In fact, you could just get it printed on the back of your shirt. “No more room” or “last in line” or something. For the metro I’m just going to get a long stick with a pusher on the end (like a snow plow) to push people in to where there’s empty space when they crowd the doors and there are still a million of us waiting to get in. That’s won’t cause too much trouble, will it?
I totally just triangulated ur position based on those supermarkets and can now stalk u forever xD JK… anyways.. I wouldn’t leave my bike on that particular santa isabel.. I study near there… Beaucheff/Blanco Encalada… and it’s not that safe..what a friend does is take the seat off and bring it with him into the supermarket… nobody steals a bike without a seat 🙂
yeah, I use a U-Lock, which is hacksaw resistant. Sometimes I take the seat with me. In DC we took the seat off because not doing so meant someone would steal the seat! Luckily people don’t realy steal components here (though someone did steal my bell one time!) You may stalk me whenever you like. I’m easy enough to find. I mean, not 4-square easy, but easy enough. Thanks for commenting!
This made me giggle 🙂 I just came across your blog yesterday when a friend of mine shared a post from it with me. She and I studied together in Valparaíso last semester, but I spent a lot of time in Santiago with some friends and Chilean cousins of mine. You mention the little Tian-Yuan supermarket on Brasil…my mom was robbed by a petty thief right in the entryway as I was browsing for a good yogurt in the back, when she visited me in Chile. Although the thief didn’t get anything important, her reaction (she’s a native Spanish speaker) was to scream “PUTA, HUEVÓN!!!” at the guy. I imagine he didn’t expect that to come from a 5’6 blond woman with a tourist backpack on! In any case, I’m considering going back to Chile for a while next year, so I can almost imagine your stories being similar to my own some day. Thanks for sharing!
Maya! welcome aboard. Thanks for commenting, and sorry your mom got ripped off right in my (old) neighborhood. The thing about hair color is very relevant. People often have a hard time guessing that I’m a gringa, what with the brown hair (though the clothes and shoes give it away). I’ll be sure to check out your corner of cyberspace. Also, I went to Hampshire. Small weird liberal arts schools unite!
Thank you! Yours is a fun blog, and I will probably be visiting often. And hooray for small, weird liberal arts schools! 🙂