A few morning thoughts about stores

I walked the kids to school today (which is a major step forward in my slow recovery from a weekend and more of stomach virus -- Eve has been doing everything, allowing me to sleep and wallow) and thought again about stores. The differentiation of stores is remarkable. The "Maxi Kiosko" sells candy, period. Well, not true -- some also have telephones or even internet booths. But they definitely don't sell newspapers. And the newspapers stands do not sell food of any kind. They are true to their calling (although they also sell some real books, maps, transit guides, etc.).

We participate in the invasion of the megastore by going to the Jumbo. But I do not sense this has caught on in a major way, although perhaps this is the blindness of the urbanite. It may in fact be that Wal-Mart has started its march of progress in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and other major cities in Argentina. But here the small stores with very specific purposes remain dominant.

I wonder if they will have the joys of our American nomenclature: mall, new mall, old mall, dead mall, and then just Target, Wal-Mart. Perhaps we will ultimately have that 1984-style utopian vision: The Store.