The malling of Latin America
Colburn, Forrest D.
The Zimbabwean novelist Chenjerai Hove has said, "In hard times the artist will blend images of despair with those of hope. In good times the writer will depict the madness of over-eating at the...
...business schools...
...An earlier "development strategy" featured "import substitution," which prescribed high tariffs to protect—and encourage—locally produced goods...
...The intellectual fashion now is for "free trade" and "export promotion": a level playing field is all that is judged necessary to ensure economic development...
...But the fashion for malls is also inextricably tied to the commercial opening in Latin America...
...And satisfaction, apparently, is shopping...
...import...
...the Costa Rican pet food market is now a six million dollar market...
...Bookstores throughout the region offer noticeably fewer books on politics than in previous decades...
...If the 1980s in Latin America was the "lost decade," because of a continent-wide recession that led to an average per capita fall in income of 25 percent, the 1990s in LatinAmerica is the "mall decade...
...In Latin America today these are "good times"— economies are on the rebound, prosperity is welcome, and it is hard to question the free trade strategy that has led to growth...
...Malls are clearly a U.S...
...If so, where will they come from and what will be their vision...
...There are many smaller centros de comercio in Costa Rica, too, one of which does not allow entrance if you do not arrive in a car (the smart way to keep out those who have no money...
...In good times the writer will depict the madness of over-eating at the expense of cultivating other values...
...The places to go in these cars are the malls, such as Multi Plaza, with two hundred stores, or the justopened, hit-of-the-town, Mall San Pedro...
...Economists also worry that too much of recent economic growth has been driven by unsustainable capital inflows...
...The outside construction of the Mall San Pedro is described locally as "fake Flintstone rocks," but inside are Victoria's Secret and 259 other temptations...
...The origin of the problem is in "success"— with a strong economy and lower tariffs (part of the commercial opening), the number of cars in Bogota has doubled in the last four years...
...On a recent Sunday there were an estimated sixty thousand visitors to the mall, described in the press as "a shopper's delight...
...Now that the region has bit of breathing space, elites are not taking a hard look at deep structural problems and trying to identify solutions...
...The social Christian political parties have in the past committed themselves to many of the same ends (via different means), but they seem now to have strayed from their mission...
...At least to date, in most countries this strategy has not resulted in much more than the addition of new tropical commodities to the familiar list of coffee, bananas, and sugar...
...Nothing captures the prevailing mood in Latin America so well as the explosion of malls throughout the region...
...This strategy of development does not look so terribly different from nineteenth-century laissez-faire...
...The trenchant problems of Latin America, where nearly a quarter of the WINTER • 1996 • 53 Politics Abroad population continues to live in what is defined by the World Bank as "extreme poverty," ensure that the region is not at the end of history but at some uncertain beginning...
...Indeed, "shopping" is one of the most commonly used English words throughout the hemisphere (as in, Ay, lo que me gusta es it de shopping a Miami...
...While shopping, they are likely to discuss Bogota's traffic...
...Even "kitty litter" is imported...
...Malls may become a fixture of Latin America, but they are unlikely to hold everyone's attention forever...
...Even in impoverished Nicaragua, where unemployment is estimated at 60 percent, those few with money are in a consumer frenzy, especially for imported goods...
...To be sure, there are congressional debates, corruption scandals, and election campaigns...
...If one is not eating out, the fashionable place to shop for groceries is the Japanese supermarket Yaohan...
...The new economic development strategy facilitates the appearance at the Carulla supermarket of such imports from the United States as: Nach-Ole Tortilla Chips, Betty Crocker Super Moist Fudge Marble Cake Mix, and Pedigree Puppy Dog Food...
...In Quito there are now eight malls, the largest of which has four hundred stores...
...The paralyzing ideological wars are over, the deep recession of the last decade has ended, and—to generalize grossly—those fortunate few who decide everything are at the mall shopping...
...But not just cars are easier to buy...
...Despite a decade of revolutionary rule, success in Managua is today measured by what you drive, with the apex being a large Toyota Land Cruiser...
...Entrepreneurs will find and exploit comparative advantages within each nation...
...The left in Latin America committed many sins: reckless use of violence, promotion of economic follies, factionalism, and more...
...Maybe the strategy, coupled with more prudent government fiscal and monetary policies, will usher in sustainable economic growth...
...The hope was to produce a wide range of goods and services, not just a handful of tropical commodities for export...
...At these malls Colombians can shop in stores with names like Jeans & Jackets...
...But now the left has all but vanished, having been swallowed by electoral politics, consumerism, and nihilism...
...Surrounding it is the competition, more malls: Metropolis, Granahorrar, Andino, Hacienda Santa Barbara, Centro 93, Plaza de las Americas, and so on...
...The work, written by Jerry Jacobs, a sociologist at Syracuse University, asserts that malls are attractive precisely because "nothing unusual is happening...
...Will a new generation of activists emerge...
...If you just want water, there is a choice among French, Italian, and Canadian bottled water...
...San Jose's Plaza de la Cultura is now bordered by McDonald's, Archie's, Burger King, and Taco Bell...
...Malls are going up elsewhere in Latin America, from Tijuana to BuenosAires...
...And there is lots of imported pet food...
...But it is hard to identify journals and books, let alone social movements and political parties, that discuss with passion and creativity the problems of individual countries or of the region at large...
...Economists worry that the propensity to import is too high and that it will overwhelm export earnings, leading to familiar pressures on the exchange rate...
...A Harvard-trained professor of marketing who works throughout the region asserts, "The desire in Latin America today is for satisfaction and as soon as possible...
...It was noisy and persistent...
...So far, though, the macroeconomic statistics of export earnings and of the growth of the gross national product are encouraging...
...Judging from the late model cars in the parking lots, the display of fine clothes, jewelry, and cellular phones, Colombians in the malls spend and spend...
...Now there are also exports of mangos, ferns and flowers, macadamia nuts, asparagus, and the like, plus a few finished 52 • DISSENT Politics Abroad goods like doors, as well as the output of factories established by multinationals taking advantage of cheap labor...
...With Costa Rica, too, embracing free trade, shoppers can now buy—in a country that exports mangos—canned mango juice from Taiwan and Israel...
...This final decade of the century in Latin America does not show signs of being an era of intellectual or political fervor...
...For lunch there are the likes of the fast-food restaurant Kokoriko, which offers "Kokori-nuggets" (pieces of deep fried chicken) served on styrofoam plates...
...The recent collapse of the much heralded Mexican economic recovery shows how vulnerable Latin American countries remain to collapsing exchange rates...
...Perhaps malls are appealing in Latin America because they offer an escape from the hard edges of urban life: congestion, crime, and an intrusive poverty...
...But it kept the issue of poverty on everyone's mind, and it held out a dream of a more egalitarian society, where basic needs were met...
...Between 1992 and 1995, the number of cars in Costa Rica increased by 40 percent...
...in malls in 1980 was 7.5, by 1994 the number of hours had fallen to 1.4...
...However, the spending frenzy of those with wealth and income invokes Chenjerai's image of "the madness of over-eating...
...Today they, too, are "at the mall...
...Signs announce the construction of even more malls and their coming attractions: excellent street access, elevators with panoramic views, fast food patios, ample parking, 117 stores...
...Maybe it even served as a check on the most blatant displays of consumerism...
...One of the few studies of the phenomenon is a brief book titled The Mall: An Attempted Escape from Everyday Life...
...The store detective who keeps an eye on the aisles against shoplifting wears a bulletproof vest, testament not only to the violence in Colombia (where the murder rate is nine times that of the United States) but also a stark reminder that the poor majority in Colombia cannot afford these foreign temptations...
...But the consumer frenzy is a worry for more than economists...
...Aside from clothing, hardly anything for sale in the mall is made in Ecuador...
...Recent studies show that, on average, it now takes ninety minutes to go from house to office in the morning, and another ninety WINTER • 1996 • 51 Politics Abroad minutes in the afternoon to go from office to house...
...Likewise, many previous centers of political activity are dormant...
...La Colonia supermarket at the Plaza de Espana offers frozen Brussels sprouts, Bugles Corn Snacks, Kraft Miniature Marshmallows, and—in a country whose principal export is coffee—Maxwell House Coffee...
...Between 1970 and 1990, twenty-five thousand new shopping centers were opened in the United States, one every seven hours...
...In Costa Rica the story is the same...
...Taking their place are shelves of "self-help" books and translations of the best-sellers of U.S...
...But the consumer frenzy accompanying the region's economic growth is disturbing...
...Indeed, while the per capita number of hours per month spent in the U.S...
...On any Saturday afternoon, Bogota's grand Plaza de Bolivar is all but deserted...
...q 54 • DISSENT...
...The crowd is at the Unicentro Mall, with its 360 stores...
...People would not flock to malls to gawk at— and purchase—locally produced consumer goods...
...Japanese cars are the most popular, but there are new Volvos, BMWs, and Mercedes-Benzes...
...A dean at the Catholic University of Ecuador revealed much when he said, in the privacy of his office, that Ecuador's universities today play only a reactionary role, that they have no ideas of their own to put forward, they only attempt to put a brake, faintly, on changes instituted by others...
...Poverty is ignored, as are so many other problems, including the need to consolidate incipient democracies...
Vol. 43 • January 1996 • No. 1
