DAY 5

The water is the same color as our tiles today. The walls are tiled except for the window wall. The sink is in. We have found a perfect light. The workmen will be gone till Monday. I can sleep tomorrow. Good night!

DAY FOUR

It's getting crowded outside. What to do with perfectly good shower doors and a bathroom sink? Fabrizio and Gabriella may have a taker for the doors.
The sink has arrived. The rest of the tiles have arrived. The grounded wires for electricity have been installed, dug into the ground, and covered with cement. The pipes in the walls and floor are covered in cement and the walls and floor are all smoothed and level. Tomorrow is tile day (piastrelle) and it is smooth sailing from there… We got an estimate today that everything would be installed by Monday. One week? Is that possible?

THE TUB HAS ARIVED! DAY 3

The progress today just about makes me believe that we will sometime soon be finished. By noon all the grooves had been chopped into the cement wall to put in the pipes, and then the plumber and sons came in to put the actual pipes in. At the end of the day all of the pipes are in place, the materials have arrived, and late this afternoon, the tub-not the tub we ordered, but an acceptable version-arrived. We think the heavy drilling is done, and we did not have quite so much to clean up.
The muratore’s son Andrea is an electrician and has advised us to ground all of the electricity in the house (nothing was grounded!), not just the new switches in the bathroom. He patiently tried to explain to us today why we should do it. As typical Americans we saw dollar signs in front of our eyes. As a typical Sicilian, he tried to convince us 1) the work is necessary and 2) the job would cost nothing, at least nothing to worry about. We of course would like the job done-for nothing and for as little expense as necessary for materials (he was guessing under $100). It is hard to know what to do-of course for safety we should do it and I keep thinking of the awful short circuits in the rain at Gaspare’s cottage our first year here. But I know grounding electricity is not a concern in this usually dry desert land of little rain, and few people do it. Of course we moved her after a severe drought ended and the rain we have experienced has become tropical at times. My main concern really is digging into each wall just as we are cleaning up, getting things organized and preparing for Jess’s arrival. And of course it will not cost nothing-impossible in the US as well as in Sicily.
Speaking of walls-the living room wall is looking better, as is the surfaces on the other side in the bathroom. But today, they poked a hole into the bedroom wall! Looks like we get another wall redone on their penny.
I don’t know how many more days it will be before they are done. Tomorrow Nino will start to work to install the tile on the floors and walls while Andrea works on installing the electricity for the tub and lights. I wish we could get away to go over to Trapani to see the America’s Cup. Maybe they take Saturday off, but probably not. Most workers go 6 days and besides, I am sick of showering outside after a swim in cold water! The salt does not seem to wash out of my hair as well as with warm water.

DAY TWO-BATHROOM NO

The big surprise was the hole knocked in the living room wall. Come on, it IS on the other side of the bathroom wall, but who would have thought it was not going to sustain a direct hit from a mallet when the old drain pipes were removed? Then my nephew Matt (an architect) asked about the advisability of a weight-bearing wall on top of a sewage pipe. Now I have all kinds of questions. But I am not proficient enough in Italian to ask them! This is just a little bit scary.
The colors and the marble are a joy though. Our friend Emilio who owns a marble store, is putting a hard resin matching our darker color into the marble we picked, so it is streaked with the right color. It is called travertine and is from Rome and is the same as was used to build the Coliseum. Emilio says that it is very hard (he says it is the hardest material on earth, though I doubt it)…we shall see! I just want it to hold my sink and look pretty.

PICNIC SI, BATHROOM NO

We had a lovely picnic Sunday with Fabrizio and Gabriella and family, Jack and Marianna and Veronica, and Fabrizio’s mother Giovanna and Gianni. Jack cooked again and made a pasta on the grill, garlic mashed potatoes, and a wonderful mixed grill barbecues in an unbeatable sauce. We celebrated Mariana’s birthday with a luscious mousse cake, and even managed to get some swimming in before dinner. The only sad note was that Palermo lost its match with Lazio 2-4, and Fabrizio went into mourning soon after the game ended. Gianni as usual shared his wisdom with me as he wandered among the plants and gave me some hints. He even picked a wild mint that Limoncello liked and told me where to find it!
In getting ready for this gathering, I somehow managed to pull a muscle in my back so I was happy to have help with the clean-up and dishes (not that Steve doesn’t help most of the time because he does). Then we discovered that the telephone line was out again, so my cell phone call to the states was brief and so was my happy birthday wish to my nieces Melanie and Megan.
Monday was slated to be the first day of “operation bathroom job.” I spent a restless night with the muscle pain, dreaming of soaking in the new jacuzzi tub, and then we woke to the reality of our last shower in the old bathroom. So I showered and was ready before 8, but the workmen did not start until 11:00. It is 5:30 in the afternoon and they have worked almost steadily since then with only a short time off for a sandwich.
Okay, here’s my report on day 1. First, a comment on the noise. Steve does not hear well so it did not bother him as much. Since the weather today is gorgeous, most of the day I was out on the terrace with the bird and Limoncello started chirping immediately when he heard the drill. It might have reminded him of his old home that was near several mechanic’s shops. He was fun to be with when he was so intent on listening and reacting. He has probably not had a day so full of human interaction in his whole life, since every time he chirped or sang, I gave him positive feedback (once a teacher, always a teacher). So we had a good time while I read the paper, Time magazine, finished the book I was reading, and when I got bored, cut some drooping branches off of the Palm tree in the side yard.
But it is now becoming a little chilly and so we are inside while the last of the dismantling takes place. They have removed all the tile and flooring and are starting on the old outflow pipes. And guess what? They were full of hair and sand and salt and stank! Every once in awhile we got a whiff of a bad smell, but I never thought it was the pipes leading out of the shower! Hopefully the walls and floors will be ready for the new tiles and pipes tomorrow when the load comes in from the plumbing supply place. We shall see how well things get coordinated. We are paying the master plumber Alberto to smooth out the rough edges, and he has been here several times already to solve some problems and answer some questions. He will most likely earn his $.
So no bathroom for awhile. Luckily we have a spare toilet and sink in the utility room and an outdoor (cold water) shower. How long will it be I wonder?

NO COUS COUS SERENDIPITY

We planned on going off for the day, first to Trapani to see the America’s Cup sailing trials, then on to the cous cous fest in San Vito Lo Capo that we cancelled out on for two years in a row. On the way, as we laughed at the graffiti lettering on the “Menfi” sign, we noticed the clouds were getting pretty ominous looking. So again we gave up on the Fest (we don’t even like cous cous much) and instead, we headed for Castelvetrano to buy a vacuum cleaner. And a few other things. After our shopping trip we headed out toward Selinunte to find a restaurant that we could recommend to people when Baffo’s Castle is closed. We passed the ruins and junk shops and went straight toward the nearly deserted beach community of Marinella, the “lido” near Selinunte.
(Fans of The Godfather II will be interested in the fact that someone left two rabbits’ heads hanging on the ticket taker’s booth at Selinunte yesterday. Police are trying to figure out what it means. Hey, horses are expensive!).
Anyway, we drove around the beach town and found streets we had never explored before and several new hotels, and we reminisced about the bakery we had found there a year before we moved to Sicily, and how good their biscotti was. The town itself is simply charming and I felt like a fashion photographer as I shot picture after picture in front of the wondering eyes of a group of hearing-impaired people having a picnic and watching me, signing rapidly all the while. We had a good seafood pranzo (mussel soup and seafood risotto, two of my favorites) on an outside terrazzo overlooking the sea and the look of the clouds made us decide to return to Trapani next week when the races are really on.
Thursday we had pizza with Enza, Brigette and Joe and enjoyed a bit of their garden of paradise. Their hibiscus hybrids are really just unbelievable, and my pictures could not do them justice.

GARDENS, CLOUDS, BEACHES, AND BIRDS

The September weather here has been warm and beautiful, but now the clouds are becoming a part of the sky a little bit each day. When we first came here, there was a severe drought continuing, so we did not see clouds for the first month. How different it is now as we see the scenery unfold with formations and sea colors different from most of the other 3 summers here. A huge red moon came up at dusk tonight with a perfectly shaped bar of dark cloud slicing through it. My camera could not capture this, unfortunately.
I have gotten the main garden planted although the rain will not come for another month, so I have to water every other day. I am thinking of repotting flowers and soil improvement now. Steve will get some grape must, the leftovers of grape seeds and hull that the wineries give out this time of year. But we have been spending so much time at the beach, I think the garden will have to wait till I am done with swimming for the season (about another month). Even with unusually high winds the beaches are gorgeous as you can see from the scenes below. Yesterday however was ruined for me when I almost dived onto a jelly fish!! The warm waters near shore just lured them in. Our busy day taking Alfonso and Maria to the airport to return to the states meant we did not swim, so we will try again tomorrow!
This weekend we took a drive over to Lido Fiori and Porto Palo and had lunch at the wonderful Hotel Vittorio there. Chef Vittorio makes a mean spaghetti with seafood sauce and despite the flies and wasps, we had a delightful meal there on the outdoor terrazzo just off the beach. We met Martin and Wendy, two Sicily aficionados from London. Then we walked the beach and took more pictures of clouds and beaches. The hotel featured an ancient olive tree that has one of the thickest stems I have seen here in the land of ancient olive trees. It had another old olive tree with cucuzzi squash that I am sure my dad will get a kick out of. On the way, we saw a fire out of control that raced across the road ahead of us, and then some of the prettiest grape harvest I have seen in awhile. This is a record grape harvest year here because of all the rain this summer.
Also new with us is our new young male canary Limoncello. He is too young to know how to sing so we must teach him, and he seems to enjoy the jazz singers we play for him daily. We whistle a bit to him hoping he gets the idea.

MOVING AND MONEY-SICILY AND NEW ORLEANS

I have been thinking of our move here three years ago as I think about the refugees from the hurricane having to start their lives all over again. I keep wondering how they are coping, now that reality has set in on them that they cannot go back home ever (or at best, not for a good long time). On a simple level, I think of them having to face starting all over and never having the things they had taken for granted, not ever again. The story teller in me takes over and little stories of loss and suffering flash through my head, and I wonder how they will fashion their new lives. I test little scenarios in my mind for their fiction value and decide the truth will be more interesting. I certainly do not think Barbara Bush’s theory is true, that not all of them will have better lives, but I know most will have different lives. What is true though is that what they make of that change is up to them and how they can take advantage of what they are presented with. Still, the reality of starting all over again after a crisis is one of the greatest tales of history.
When I was a kid, my family was in the same house all of my childhood, and so did everyone else’s family that I knew. So the idea of moving and living somewhere else always fascinated me. I quickly got over that after I had to do it. Before coming to Italy I had my share of moving, but it has always been something that has been necessary, but certainly not mandatory. It is a different matter when the only alternative is to start all over again from scratch. Still I know what it is to move to a place with almost nothing familiar.
We each brought 2 big suitcases here to Sciacca, and it took days to pack what we had been thinking about hard for several months. And then there are the simple things-the hangers, wastebaskets, scrub brushes, toothbrush holders, towels. How many of these things are in place in a new residence certainly varies from country to country, and from place to place. We rented a furnished apartment here and then bought a furnished house, but we still have had to spend a lot of money for things that were not part of either deal. A typical house rental or sale in Sicily involves the necessity to buy house furnishings from scratch, including refrigerator and stove, kitchen sink, and sometimes the toilet. Don’t ever expect hangers or curtains unless you are charged for them.
No matter what, moving is always an expense in the long run, and it always reminds me of people who say that they hate a place but cannot afford to move. There may be cities, neighborhoods, or parts of the country people want to move out of, but when faced with packing up what they have and making the change, it is almost impossible on a limited budget. Most of the time, it is a simple matter of money that keeps people in places that do not bring them happiness. Yet there are other people that cannot emotionally expend the energy to think about changing their lives and their belongings. The sheer job of it expands with the amount of years lived in a place-what to take? what to throw away, give away, try to sell?
I think about the hundreds of thousands of evacuees in New Orleans, and especially I wonder what people thought was valuable that they made sure to pack when they evacuated. What were the important things to a family that thought they might return very soon? Pictures, medicines, personal cleanliness items and valuables of course, but how many clothes for each family member for such a supposedly brief evacuation? What luxuries, what of the little things that seem so important when you do not have them? Those are the details that fascinate me about so many people being forced to make so many decisions.
Anyway, there are decisions that will be made about such complex problems as whether or not to rebuild New Orleans in the same configuration. We love the city and want to visit it again when it’s rebuilt someday. But what a wake-up call for the US to recognize that not all of its citizens are mobile, and not all of them can be helped before some of them have to die for the lack of basic human needs. What is thought of as the most powerful, efficient (at least by Italian standards) and rich country in the world cannot now solve such complex environmental problems. This is quite a shock for the rest of the world! They figure if the US can’t do it with its well-known riches, what hope do other countries have? The lack of an effective response before so many had to die does not help the current leadership’s image either. Even main stream pro-Berlusconi (Bush’s buddy) papers are talking about the Halliburton connection between Katrina and the contracts in Iraq. We will be keeping a close eye and ear at a distance to the latest developments in the “Big Easy. “ Let’s hope our federal government can make a priority of correcting some of the inequality that exists in America today and that was so graphically shown in that destroyed city.

SCIACCAMARE

Last night we finally got into Sciaccamare, the resort that will not let residents enter its grounds. It is along a beautiful part of the seacoast, and it has its very own thermal (sulfur stinky) baths. The resort we went to, the Torre Barone, was only one of 4, and Paolo assured us each could hold hundreds of people, although the number varied as the night wore on and more people told us about the place.
We were guests of Paolo’s sister-in-law, Ignatzia’s sister Maria and her husband Alfonso from Staten island, and it was their 44th wedding anniversary, a fact that only Steve and I did not know. Sciaccamare has what they call Sicilian night on Tuesday, and we were with a group of about 20 friends and family. We ate and ate and drank our fill and had wonderful views and great waiters and animatori (Italian for recreational activity staff). There was dancing and games and we had a later night than we usually do, so we were tired out. But it was a lot of fun and we got to see a part of town normally off limits to we “locals.”

AMERICAN PICNIC 2005

Yesterday we had our end of the summer American picnic for all the neighbors. We figured between 30 and 40 people, and we were not far off. The weather was perfect (in fact, it was clear hot and humid and this morning it is 100 degrees in the sun) and despite the lack of chairs, everyone crowded together to eat together and have a good time.
People here love these chances to see American things and taste American food that they have only heard about. I try to change the menu every year. For me, it is such fun to analyze how things are different between Sicilians and Americans. On both sides, you can try to change ideas, but old traditions die hard. For example, I mentioned that all of the food was American so don’t bring anything. There was no one who listened to that, so we received bottles of wine, liquors, a ceramic key holder, and enough sweets to keep us in hypoglycemic shock for a good while. Some are pictured, but the freezer is full of specialty gelato too. Yum!!
Because I remembered the interest from last year, and so that I would not have to repeat myself many times, I translated the menu items and ingredients ahead of time and put them up for all to see. Everyone seemed to like that but there are always things that happen that remind me of how many little habits we take for granted about eating American style. For example, we set the table up inside in anticipation of double the crowd from last year. I walked outside when the table was ready to call people to eat, only to find everyone was already eating a hamburger or hotdog without a plate. In Italy, you eat meals in courses, and they must have figured that was the first course. Also, on a hamburger it is customary in the states to put on ketchup or mustard or onions or relish or all of them. Mayonnaise is not normally a big item. Here there is no relish, and everyone naturally puts mayo on hot dogs and hamburgers when presented with one in a bun. Steve tells me that Emilio asked specifically how to fix an American hamburger, and so Steve told him how (minus the mayonnaise). From that point on, Emilio took it upon himself to instruct people on how to fix their hamburger American style.
And wouldn’t 60 and 70’s US hits be suitable for an American picnic? Yet after I put one CD of oldies hits on, the kids found a rather pathetic cheap CD mix to try, and then a pushy parent came in and asked where the Italian music was and selected last year’s Sciacca Carnavale CD and instructed me to put it on. Bye-bye American music! This was the same person who informed me that you have the “dolci” (sweets brought from the bakeries, tied up as a present) and espresso before the watermelon was cut. Silly me, selecting the music and the order of the desserts for my own picnic!
Other examples with the food-there is the matter of the salt potatoes, those little potatoes in skins cooked in salt water and served with melted butter. The food line got held up because everyone had to meticulously remove the skin from each potato before putting butter on (no one wanted to ladle butter with the gorgeous wooden ladle from Woodduflo, so they went off and got a plastic spoon for the butter). Then they would add salt from my salt grinder even when I said they were cooked in salt (just like my dad!). And then some could not rotate the top to use the grinder. For the deviled eggs, it had to be explained that it was not peppericino but paprika sprinkled on top. The real hit was the baked beans. I made Wendy’s baked bean rarebit casserole, and despite its directions to bake in the oven and without the key ingredient of cheddar cheese, it came out very tasty in the microwave using half provolone and half mozzarella.
On to entertainment. One of the normal forms of silliness with this crowd is pretending it is someone’s birthday or name day, singing to them, and blowing out a lighter. That is what Steve and Angelo are doing in the picture between the food tables. Roasting the marshmallows was a ball for me and a big hit, although unfortunately, we only got rid of a few packages of our stash. The April crew brought over tons of marshmallows and I am trying hard to get rid of them to get myself some space, which is always at a premium here. Almost no one knew what a marshmallow was and no one knew an Italian name for it. So I stood near the fire with a bunch of shish-ka-bob sticks and loaded marshmallows on them and gave directions. I watched the crowd get excited and one by one and in groups come over to roast their marshmallows. It was better than a parlor game and seeing the excitement over such a blasé thing, I cannot wait till I introduce S’Mores to the boys next door, Giacomo and Vincenzo. Yes, I have some Hershey bars and graham crackers stashed away, but only a few for the selected privileged ones, the kids!
The other big entertainment was throwing the ice that was in the tubs for the watermelon and drinks down each other’s backs (it was a hot day). The little boys started it, but the worst offenders were the men, and Steve finally took the whole container and emptied it on 12 year old Giacomo. Of course, Giacomo came back with the garden hose on him! It cooled them both down-some people never grow up.
Tonight the boys went to Sciacca and bought a rabbit and came over and told us about it-how it is different from a wild one, how big it will be, etc. Tune in later for the name, and more bunny antics.

RIBERA MARKET SIROCCO END

We had three windy hot humid days and today, the wind finally died down and the humidity was cut in half. Even though the night temperature wasn’t that high (about 82), I was really getting tired of sleeping in damp sheets. These hot damp winds from the south that often carry sand and fine dirt and deposit them everywhere are the nightmare of our climate and happen all year long. But other than churning up a lot of awesome waves on the beach, they seem to be over. In fact, when we swam today, our third swim was the first time a lifeguard ever told us to get out of the water (but he came in to substitute for the regular guy’s lunch and does not know that we are strong swimmers who had been in twice before). The beach and water was dirty because the winds had churned up all sorts of stuff, but we enjoyed playing in the waves till Steve dived under one and lost his sunglasses. The water has warmed up nicely, finally!
Before swimming, we went to Ribera market today. It was pretty sparse and we are wondering where the feast day is since the regular vendors were not around and there were less than half the normal amount of people around. I bought celery, lettuce, and parsley plants for the fall-winter garden, and we got a few other odds and ends, nothing great. But we did see an open truck with 5 horses on it and another with a nice looking donkey. So we followed it to see if we could find the other celebration, and ending up parked near the donkey on a side road while the owner looked around perplexed. Think he know his ass from…well, never mind, we were the ones following this ass around to see where it went! Anyway, I got some good pictures of him.
Anyone who follows our adventures or who has visited may remember Claudio the used car salesman of the lumaca (snail) farm fame. Claudio is giving up on the snail farm idea for he has turned it into a moto-cross area for bikes and four wheelers. It is only open Sundays and he charges $5 for running your vehicle around the track as much as you want, plus he rents 4 wheelers and has a coffee bar there too. One of these Sundays Steve will go over and check it out.

AND THE WORK GOES ON....

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone has the day off and you are all relaxing and you teachers out there are not having back-to-school bad dreams. It does not seem possible that I have been retired for three full years for it seems like only yesterday, and yet, at other times, I feel like it was in another lifetime. Everyone asks the questions, so no, I have still never been bored and I still don’t miss it!
We have had another round of trying to solve the Great Leak Problem, or “the nightmare that never ends,” as I like to think about it. It has been over a year and over a thousand euros and we THINK by hiring a good plumber this time and by bypassing the pipes on the common wall between our house and our neighbors, that we will not have to pay for their wall repairs anymore. The kitchen hot and cold water pipes now come directly off of the hot water heater in the utility room (see pictures below).
The neighbors would like us to sink another thousand plus into a ditch on the side of the house. We have decided do a few things around our house first and then later talk about more leak-proofing stuff. We want a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, some repairs to the window curtain systems, and an outside concrete storage area. In the last few days we have talked to so many workmen about these projects that it is time for me to talk about the differences between home repair work in Italy (or at least Sicily) and the same kind of work in the U.S.
The plumber that we have now employed for the leak repair and the bathroom job, Signore Falco, is a jazz enthusiast and has been preceded by warnings from friends and foes alike that he is expensive. He even warned us of this, saying he only uses the best materials (he is so proud that he only uses that grand new invention, PVC pipes). But the biggest difference is that he does not employ people “under the table”, or “lavoro nero”, which is a way to get out of paying the super high taxes to the Italian government. Of course, his sons work for him and do all of the manual labor, while he schmoozes and supervises and does all the thinking. But he WOULD give us a certificate in writing that guarantees the work. In the long run for a job like this, it may be worth every centesimo.
We talked to our driver Michele’s brother about constructing the outdoor storage area and the curtain job. He is definitely lavoro nero and he wants to do the bathroom job, but thinks he can’t work with our plumber. That is a good sign! Anyway, he had been around and worked on our resort when it was built 18 or so years ago. We were struck by how he was going to start researching where the original brick in our backyard came from so he could match it up. There is an attention to detail here that is typical of so many workers on home repair projects. Since there are so few jobs and labor is so cheap, no one minds contracting for these types of home repairs and there is a plenitude of people you can call to do the work. So we get to pick and choose the workers, more or less.
I talked to Mario, Michele’s brother, about the construction of this resort and if there was one master plumber or if there were several, and why weren’t there any plans of where the plumbing was. I had been appalled that all the pipes were under our tile floors and imagined that no one had an idea how to reach the leaks that might develop. He laughed and said that was not important, only a knowledge of how the plumbing worked. He said that it was easy to repair around leaky pipes, it was just a matter of finding another way around, and that they would never really have to dig up the under-the-floor plumbing in our house. He laughed at the idea of all pipes being accessible and a floor plan of the plumbing. That is just not the way in concrete houses.
Sicilian house repair has that inventive “can-do” feel to it that is built out of necessity. But the other part of the work ethic of Sicilians is that if they can get away with something they will. They do this as a matter of course or as a matter of pride and it is worse because we are Americans (of course they think we are all rich). And so we have to be careful, and we have to have a translator sometimes to explain to us why so many people are trooping through our house, speaking in rapid Sicilian that we do not understand.
We did understand the guys fixing the tennis court this AM. In any language, that is called “goofing off!!”

WAL-MART NATION

Today we are starting our fourth year here in Sicily, in this familiar-but-totally-different culture. It is kind of like New Years for me, as I look back on the anniversary of our arrival and reflect on all that we have done and seen and learned. For three years we have explored our new homeland and tried to understand things about Sicily that are different from our US experiences. In doing this we feel almost like amateur anthropologists. We have furthered this study by also visiting other parts of Europe, and even a little of Asia and Africa (bits of Tunisia and Turkey)!
We increasingly find that we are now distanced enough from the US to see some trends that it might not be possible for others to see from close up. Just the difference in viewpoint in the news is instructive. Also, how can we explain the changes we see when we return to the US? For example, there is the little matter of hair clips.
Our US trips twice a year have begun to follow a particular pattern that we are becoming comfortable with. We always plan our winter trips to include a visit in Mexico (hey, it gets cold in Italy too!) and our summer trip will involve reunions and doctors and dentists’ visits. We always will try to see as many friends and relatives as possible and we usually have very few days in which there is any free time in the schedule of things planned. We try to squeeze in museums and art shows, magazine, music and book collecting when we get a chance between visiting, traveling, and shopping. Shopping is important because there are still plenty of products that we have only found in the good ol US, so lists of items to bring back are started months ahead of time before a trip. On that list this time was hair clips.
Since my hair is longer I have needed something to keep it off of my neck in the heat. I have been shopping for hair clips since this spring and so far I’ve only seen one that I like better than the ones I bought in Tuscany this summer. We cover a good part of the Northeast zigzagging between Boston, where we land and take off for Italy, and Dunkirk, where our semi-permanent temporary home is, and we rent cars where needed and visit family and friends and shop along the way. So I began to wonder why this was so, why the shortage of a variety of different hair clips? I had seen quite a few beautiful but more expensive varieties in Italy. Surely there was a reason why there are not more types to choose from in the US, land of unlimited shopping. It seems like there should be a bigger variety among all of the stores we walked into in a month.
But there was not. The reason for this is that in the areas of Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts that we cover, there are only a handful of different stores that we have to choose from. We must have been in twenty or thirty different stores. But most of them were really the same store. In this northeast corridor, CVS and Eckert seem to be the only drug stores left, and they seem to have caused to “disappear” Kinneys, Brooks, and other independent drug stores. And hair clips? They sell the same ones no matter where or which drug store we tried. It must be some kind of “drug store hair marketing” package. Gross!
And of course the ubiquitous WAL-MART and Target. I do like Penneys and Kaufmans and Jones of New York outlet for clothes. But in place of the variety department stores we used to go to for all the “little things,” there is just not much choice anymore. Even grocery stores are becoming huge. “Tops” changing into “Martins” is tripling its space in Dunkirk (their hair clips were non-existent). And to give them competition, WAL-MART will open a superstore with a grocery section. At least there will be more than one possibility to shop in my hometown. Many areas only have WAL-MART, with its policy of “lowest prices,” to shop in.
Speaking of WAL-MART’s prices- will they continue to be the lowest possible when the competition from all other stores is gone? Honestly, I don’t know. But logically-why should they? If this Arkansas phenomenon continues to evolve into the only place to shop for most Americans, why should they work harder to keep their prices the lowest? This is not in the interest of a business that has had the power to eliminate all other comparable stores so that they are the only real alternative. It seems just common sense that they will eventually charge whatever they feel like for all their products.
But even now I don’t think WAL-MARTS price policy is good for everybody all of the time. While it may seem that the idea of the “lowest price guarantee” is a good thing because we are all of us consumers, what about the producers that cannot sell their goods for the price that WAL-MART dictates to be the lowest possible? Why, they go out of business, of course. With the volume of sales this store has all over the country, it is impossible to compete effectively or even to stay in business unless you have a contract or sub-contract with the biggest goods supplier in most areas. WAL-MART is such a giant that most other markets do not even come close to their size or to give them real competition.
We saw this one illustrated one night on TV while in the states when we caught one of a series of programs dedicated to WAL-MART’S effect on American culture. If you get a chance to see it, watch it, though I did not catch the program’s name. The show described this phenomenon by following a couple of would-be entrepreneurs and their struggle to land a deal with WAL-MART to handle their product. Following this couple, the documentary camera men showed the process of selection that thousands of people go through to win the privilege of becoming WAL-MART suppliers. There is this surreal building at WAL-MART headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, where people go to pitch their ideas to executives who will decide if they want the product for the price the supplier can deliver it for. Dozens of rooms were shown with different products being pitched, and the mood is seriously somber. A contract with this super consumer can make or break a product producer. Later parts of this program showed a manufacturer who could not deliver product for the bottom line price and soon lost the WAL-MART contract and subsequently went out of business.
But that is the name of the game in Capitalism. If a locally produced product is more cheaply made when manufactured in Bangladesh and sold in WAL-MART, than it follows that it’s better for everyone that it be produced there and to close down the factory down the street. It’s silly to feel sorry for a loser, and all that. EVERYONE is a consumer of some sort, so the good of the many (lower prices) is more important than the misfortune (not being able to produce a product for lower prices) of the few. Or that is what we good capitalist Americans have had ingrained in us for as far back as we can remember. Remember the workers who lose their jobs in non-competitive company closures are consumers too! It is conceivable that some of these businesses went under for offering more money and benefits to these now-unemployed workers than the producers who came out on the top of the heap. That’s capitalism, baby!
Contrary to these long held beliefs is the newer concept, popular since the NAFTA treaty caused so many American jobs to disappear, that Americans consumers should pay a higher price and buy locally made products instead of products that are produced for lower prices but that take jobs away from American workers. This part of the “No Global” idea is gaining acceptance by all kinds of people, not just those fed up with the results of American capitalism. This concept stands in direct contrast to what was thought previously, that is, the process that produces the lowest priced products is the one that should succeed. So WAL-MART pledged to sell only US made products. Today does it still say it only sells items US produced? Wait, let me go check my labels right now.
Well, just as I thought-impossible in this day and age. My Hanes products were just plain made in Mexico. The Faded Glory brand jeans were made in the US with foreign components. One bra was made in Israel, one assembled in Honduras. The claim to sell only US-made is not true, but I seem to remember a claim to TRY to sell only US products. There may truly be an effort there because all of my vitamins and drugs are produced in the US. But honestly, the reason I buy these things and bring them back here is because I cannot buy these particular products in Europe!
Truly though, I am an American consumer. Among other things (like buying too much of everything!) I like to look for just the right thing at just the right cost. Steve is the same and he really loves the challenge of food shopping here. It took us awhile to adapt our shopping needs to the small business atmosphere here in Sciacca, but we have become accustomed to the allure of personalized service, and quality products at specialized stores. We know we may pay for it at times, but when you buy bread at a bakery that smells fresh and yeasty, and you watch the butcher prepare the sausage for you from the cuts of meat that you choose and add the just the right spices (never as much fennel and rosemary as Sicilians like), you expect to pay more. Hair clips? We can find them here only because we have learned with time to look in just the right places for most products. But there are very few stores that are self service and salespeople hover over you, sometimes trying to sell you something that is not exactly what you want. Besides, the stock is not always out in front of you and so Sicilians shop more verbally than visually, discussing endlessly the pros and cons of one product over another fetched from bins above or below displays. I just don’t have the verbal skills for that yet. The atmosphere is usually not a relaxing browse as in the US.
In fact I don’t go shopping here in Sicily at all unless for a special reason. People don’t believe me when I tell them that I don’t want to go shopping, that it is a waste of time because I don’t need anything. Now that is not very American, since so many of us were raised on consuming items and shopping for more as a form of recreation. From the times kids are small and their moms push them around the malls, to the teen mall and movie trips, to oldsters walking malls for exercise and meeting family and friends for coffee, the shopping experience is part of the American experience. And here I am in retirement rejecting this type of entertainment here in Europe. Maybe it is because there is no real feel of entertainment when you shop here. Mostly there are only specialty shops and real work to find out where you can buy a product that you need. The only browsing with variety is in the weekly outdoor markets, which are confusing and crowded and filled with colorful salesmen yelling prices and bargains. I can take that once every month or so, but more for entertainment than for the range of products available. Most of the stuff is cheap and aimed at impulse buying by uninformed consumers.
In fact, I believe, like most Americans, that the broadest range of products in a store makes that store the most desirable and entertaining. Bingo! WAL-MART feeds that instinct to comparison shop and buy everything you need in one stop. Ergo it’s popularity even if its prices weren’t the lowest. And since we are usually short of time when we are in the states, you know that we take way too many trips to the Big W. I had way too many product tags to check!
Increasingly when in the US, we have tried to shop the Big T as an alternative. But I think the idea there is pretty much the same, that of the forcing out of business smaller stores because of the success of the huge ones. I wish I could stop myself from shopping there, but I am as addicted as any other American at this point to all the allures of the shopping giants: need, perceived or otherwise; entertainment value; dollar value; and decreased time spent shopping (those new self check-outs are really nifty!).
Now, finally, back to the hair clips. I am lucky enough to have all kinds of choices. I can shop in the US or in Italy and often in France, Spain, Austria, etc, or at least their airports. So I get to see a variety of products at different prices. And it is true that WAL-MART often has much lower prices than anywhere else in the world, even Paris during its January sales! But it is also true that there is a standardization of products that occurs when a consumer monopoly is this successful. And so I saw the same dreary looking hair clips at each WAL-MARTS and not a hint of variety of any kind. Experts in marketing must realize they have to give you some choices to make you happy, and so there were a few to choose from. But they were honestly boring and pretty much all alike.
So the famous Bentonville system failed me in one product. And in most towns there are now few shopping options available other than settling for the product that has been chosen by the national to be sold there. I can’t help but wonder if the danger of standardization and availability of products is being at all considered in the US. This makes me also think that we are only a short time away from not having a choice but to pay the prices that are put on an item at WAL-MART. If I am wrong in that thinking, someone help me out here.
Just as I cannot buy those beautiful, soft leather, expensive Italian shoes because my size is not available anywhere here, will people in the US find that items previously considered necessities won’t be available anymore? And at what price will they be forced to pay?
Now you know one of the other reasons why I don’t shop in Sicily-the size frustration is just too much for me. But WAL-MART almost always has my size, and in most cases, there is a choice of different styles. And really, who needs more than one hair clip when I only wear one at a time? I think I am my own worst enemy sometimes. What about you?