Inside, teenagers push wheelbarrows full of tripe, women hawk handmade tortillas and one reclusive vendor peddles frog-leg tamales.
Such markets dot the Mexico City landscape, serving places such as Xochimilco — a clannish borough famed for gondolas plying centuries-old canals and farmers growing crops on chinampas, or man-made islands built on lakes.
It’s a throwback to a bygone era and increasingly popular with tourists, foodies and chefs, especially with Mexico City making waves as a culinary destination.
But it’s also among a dying breed. Changing urban development patterns, the proliferation of cars and increasingly modern lifestyles are driving Mexicans from markets like Xochimilco’s to newly opened supermarkets and big box stores — many of them operated by Walmart, now the country’s biggest retailer and employer, and a company caught in a corruption scandal.
Walmart-owned stores have mushroomed across Mexico over the past 20 years, selling everything from tortillas to televisions at bargain prices and pulling away customers from mom-and-pop stores and the traditional markets.
“It’s driven down sales here,” says Rosa Tellez, 25, who sells tortillas and gorditas in Xochimilco made from corn harvested in a small “milpa,” instead of the ubiquitous cornmeal coming from the country’s milling monopoly.
A New York Times exposé alleged Walmart’s Mexican subsidiary made payments to middlemen and local officials to facilitate development permits — and the company then hushed an investigation into the matter.
The exposé stained the reputation of a company that had revolutionized the retail sector in Mexico, where competition and customer service were previously uncommon concepts. Walmart also had won fanfare for its environmental initiatives and programs for purchasing from suppliers in downtrodden regions.
“One thing it’s been very successful at is promoting its image with its clients . . . promoting its social image,” said Duncan Wood, director of the international studies program at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.
“I use Walmart all the time (as an example) when I’m talking about green energy in this country.”
Walmart never developed the number of critics in Mexico like it did north of the border, except some complaints about the teenagers bagging groceries in its stores for tips and criticism for opening an outlet near the Teotihuacán pyramids in 2005.
That began changing last year in Mexico City, where the local government approved an initiative known as Norma 29, to keep Walmart-style stores away from traditional markets and limit new development to major thoroughfares.
Criticisms of Walmart grew louder with the corruption allegations. A business group known as Canacope says every new Walmart store hurts 300 mom-and-pop businesses. The federal and Mexico City governments have opened investigations into past permits given to the retail giant.
Merchants complain that government policies have diminished their sales and profitability — especially a scheme of giving tax deductions to big businesses that pay workers with coupons redeemable only at grocery stores.
Another initiative last fall saw the federal government advance Christmas bonuses to bureaucrats as part of a retail industry initiative to introduce “Black Friday” into Mexico — something merchants in traditional markets say drove down their Christmas sales.
“That hit us where it hurt,” says Elsa Morales, who sells indigenous clothing from Oaxaca state at her stall in the Xochimilco market.
Other problems for the merchants reflect structural changes in Mexico over the past 20 years. The growing middle class, for example, increasingly prefers to make electronic payments that merchants are unable to process. The middle classes now increasingly own cars and find parking spaces in short supply at most markets.
Additionally, “There’s a certain status the comes from shopping in self-service stores,” said Canacope spokesman Gustavo Fuerte. His comments reflect the tendency for people in countries with emerging economies to patronize businesses in the formal economy as their incomes increase.
The definition of status might be changing, though, as buy-local trends move into Mexico and authentic Mexican cuisine — from street tacos and tamales to dishes with pre-Hispanic ingredients like duck and venison — gains acclaim.
Ruth Alegria, a New York native now living in the national capital, regularly explores the markets of Mexico City and fixes trips to such places for TV crews, tourists and even Michelin-star chefs.
“The variety at these places just blows them away,” said Alegria.
Farmers’ markets have popped up in chic neighbourhoods and even a delivery service of boxes stuffed with the bounty harvested from Xochimilco’s chinampas.
“The trend now is to buy local, fresh and well-made things,” said Ricardo Rodriguez, whose company, Productos de la Chinampa, delivers to households and trendy restaurants alike.
“This wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago.”
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: David Agren
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