!!VÉNDAME!! (Sell me something), is the daily call at the house where I´m staying. My cousins have stores at both ends of the layout, my room lies in between. My cousin on the right runs a pulperia (small grocery store) and my cousin on the left runs a small office supplies store. Both spend time talking or eating in the back outdoors kitchen. Customers yell out !!VENDAME!! whenever they seek service and no one is at their respective posts.
At first, I thought that service was demanded immediately. I wanted to help and relayed the message. My cousins took their time to finish whatever they were doing and then took care of their customers. This happened a few times before I learned that customers were used to waiting. They have patience to stand there and yell for minutes.
Kids make a game of it. They sing it or shout it out in different voices. Adults bang the iron door as they shout out the command. Come to think of it, it´s more a request for attention than a command. I´m getting use to their incessant calls for service and have began ignoring them. I figured that if the store owners did not rush to people´s call, then why should I?
I take it that since I come from a high preassure environment where everyone is always on the go, and where customer service is something immediate, I expect similar behavior here. It´s not so. Jesus de Otoro is much, much slower. The pace of life here is a crawl in comparison to LA. People take their time for everything, and so understand when others make them wait. I´m usually frustrated with bank service here, which can be a long time, but I have to tell myself to be patient.
P.S. Internet connection is also slow, it may have nothing to do with culture but with
old computers and slow connections....it takes me an hour to upload my youtube
videos which you can watch on this page...
At first, I thought that service was demanded immediately. I wanted to help and relayed the message. My cousins took their time to finish whatever they were doing and then took care of their customers. This happened a few times before I learned that customers were used to waiting. They have patience to stand there and yell for minutes.
Kids make a game of it. They sing it or shout it out in different voices. Adults bang the iron door as they shout out the command. Come to think of it, it´s more a request for attention than a command. I´m getting use to their incessant calls for service and have began ignoring them. I figured that if the store owners did not rush to people´s call, then why should I?
I take it that since I come from a high preassure environment where everyone is always on the go, and where customer service is something immediate, I expect similar behavior here. It´s not so. Jesus de Otoro is much, much slower. The pace of life here is a crawl in comparison to LA. People take their time for everything, and so understand when others make them wait. I´m usually frustrated with bank service here, which can be a long time, but I have to tell myself to be patient.
P.S. Internet connection is also slow, it may have nothing to do with culture but with
old computers and slow connections....it takes me an hour to upload my youtube
videos which you can watch on this page...
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