Job Discussion Forums

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

Not tipping in the parking lot of a store you frequently visit is a good way to get your door keyed (scratched). Watch this also at intersections. The window washers may key your car if you don't tip them. If you have a truck, watch the contents in the back when you stop at an intersection with these people.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Wow, this thread seems to be deteriorating into the "Bash Mexicans" mode, yet again. Interesting how that keeps happening. There are some pretty mean comments noted in this thread.

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

Comes again the hypercritical Samantha calling common sense security advice "Mexican bashing" All of this advice applies anywhere.

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

I seriously doubt that the baggers at Superama are college students performing social service. For one, they are too young.
Secondly, I seriously doubt that such a menial job would be an appropriate one for social service.
When teaching in Merida, I had one private student who had just completed her medical degree and was in her second year residency at the government hospital. She had previously done her community service in a tiny town midpoint between Merida and Valladolid. Her pay was a whopping 500 pesos per month. Despite having a nurse practicionner backup whose pay was substantially more as that person was a working credentialled professional, she insisted the woman was useless and she had to do most of that person`s work, as well.

MO39 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, Social Service is required of university students after finishing all the coursework for their degree. A Mexican friend of mine is a doctor, and, when he finished his studies, he spent a year serving as a doctor in a tiny, isolated town somewhere in northern Mexico. It was quite a challenge for him to be on his own this way, and he probably learned more in that year about what it means to be a doctor that in all his years of formal study!

guatetaliana · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:12 am Post subject:

Hey, I just came back to this thread because my husband reported something strange today after coming home from shopping at Soriana:

Rather than an item missing, he had a random Magnum ice cream bar in his bag that he hadn't purchased.

Maybe a bagger swiped it from a previous shopper and then thought better when they realized it would melt?

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

I shop at Soriana as well. The cashiers could be on a bowling team with the way they send items flying off the scanner. There are usually bags in a little heap and assorted little messes off to the left of the area where the grocery items land. It seems that things could get buried accidentally, and that the bagger would assume the item he unearthed was that of the current shopper. An obviously forgotten item would likely be handed to the cashier by the next bagger. They switch baggers after every customer here so that's why I would first assume that.

In 8 years of shopping at Soriana, Walmart, Bodega Aurrera, Gigante, or Mega, I have never lost or gained an item. Sometimes the computer pricing doesn't match that of the price on the shelf, but that happened in Canada alot too. We usually shop in pairs so that one can watch the scanner prices and the other can unload the cart. That's easier than trying to return something later that was wrongly priced.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

All the more reason to not have a car. Unless you're driving a hybrid and/or carpooling, you should be ashamed to own one in this city.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

The good things in life? A car is a liability, not an asset. It's a liability to your wallet, as you noted, a security risk as you noted, and a threat to the environment.

I find it absolutely silly to have a car here in DF. I have a bicycle and and can get to where I need to go faster than you can with either that, or a taxi, or the subway, or the metrobus, or a pesero. Why use the slowest, most dangerous form of transport in owning a car?