Want to buy a toothbrush? Marketing Costa Rican Style

Friday, July 27, 2012

After school today, Kesa and I took the bus further into San Jose. When we arrived at the end of the line, we disembarked amid such a crowd of people that I thought I was in New York City. I could hardly walk for all the people. The bus stopped at a cobblestone street that is not used by vehicles and we started making our way through the crowd.





As we walked down the street, we saw vendors of all sorts hawking their wares, which were laid out down the middle of the cobblestone street, laying right on the street. There were no tables or other method of display other than just laying whatever they were selling right on the street.

Apparently, the country has la lotería (lottery), because there were people with small tables on every corner selling lottery tickets. The tickets were just lying out in rows on the tables, but I did notice they had push pins on each one, apparently to slow down the petty thieves.

We crossed through La Plaza de la Cultura (Culture Park), which was covered with pigeons, mooching off anyone who would give them a bite of whatever they were eating.


This photo doesn't even begin to show the amount of pigeons. At places, I had to scoot them aside with my feet to pass through.



 Kesa wanted to buy a bilingual Bible that was not Catholic. Jennifer gave her directions to an evangelical book store, but we couldn't find it. Soon we found ourselves in a part of town that felt a little scary. One of the lotería saleswomen, an older woman who was with her blind son, took us under her wing and quickly advised me to put my camera under my blouse rather than walk around with it exposed around my neck. She advised us to really hug up on our purses so no one would grab them and she told Kesa to keep an eye on the necklace she was wearing. She was helpful, but scared the beejeebies out of me with her admonitions. She sent us off to the east 6 blocks to find the book store. No book store there. We asked 2 policemen for help; they sent us 3 blocks back the way we came. Along the way we encountered book stores, just not the Evangelical kind. Another man sent us several blocks in another direction. It almost felt as if they all had walkie talkies and were in collusion to see how many different directions they could send us. We went around and around and I was so turned around, I wasn't sure I was still in Costa Rica! Eventually we ended up back with the lady with the lottery tickets who was with yet another son, a professor of English. He was sure the book store was in a completely different direction. Before departing, the lottery lady blessed us Catholic style and we headed out once more for the not-Catholic bookstore. Turns out her son was correct: we found the bookstore and Kesa was able to find a Bible to buy.

After walking all over the place in the rain, dodging people and cars, we had little time to go to the mercado de artesanias, so we made a quick run through. From the outside it looked like a run-down rectangular something. Not quite a tent, but not really a building either. Stall after stall was filled with just about anything you can imagine. As we walked the length of the mercado people would try to get us to enter their area all the while regaling us with what they had to sell and what it was made of. There were leather goods, wooden carvings, jewelry, clothing, toys, every kind of handmade souvenier you could think of. It was an interesting, but imposing place.

About an hour before sundown, we thought it wise to catch a bus and head home. The bus had just barely pulled away from the curb, when de repente (suddenly) a young man stood up at the front of the bus, and in a loud voice introduced himself and explained that he was a poor college student in need of money, whipped out several packages of toothbrushes and began a sales pitch on why we should buy his toothbrushes. Yes, you heard me correctly: TOOTHBRUSHES!  He went on quite sincerely for quite a while, even demonstrating the models that fold in half, their flexibility, etc. I was quite impressed with his agility, that he was able to stay upright while the bus bounced and hopped its way down the road. After his lengthy presentation, he walked the aisle of the bus selling toothbrushes to anyone who wanted one! A couple of stops down the road, he got off the bus and a young man with half of a bag of suckers got onboard and began his pitch to sell suckers. Kesa bought two. Too bad the toothbrush salesman didn't board after the sucker salesman. He may have had better luck...





Anyone want to buy a toothbrush?