Shopping

I am not sure when shopping became patriotic. It used to be that shopping was either 1) a necessity, or 2) a sign of self indulgence. After 9/11, of course, when Americans wanted to “do” something, we were advised to “go shopping.”

Now that the nation is in its worst economic crisis since the depression, once again, we are told to get out there and spend money.

We have been shopping—but not in that frantic, spend-all-the-money-you can-as-fast-as-you-can sort of way. The Macbook got sick so I hunted out the nearest Apple store. Two are in San Antonio, so I chose the one that looked closest and headed over to the “Genius Bar” at La Cantera (http://www.theshopsatlacantera.com/html/index7.asp). My, now this is some fancy shopping center. Definitely not your 20th-century mall. On the second trip (this time to replace the hard drive) I told N that I thought she might find the trip to La Cantera fun. That was an understatement.

While I waited for the new hard drive (under warranty, thank heavens) N strolled through the outdoor mall filled with streams, elaborate plantings, an outdoor food court, and high end shops (Neiman Marcus, and the like). The experience seemed more like California than Texas, and N said she felt like she was on vacation.

After Christmas we decided that we really needed to check out the outlets only 15 minutes from our house. There are the Tanger Outlets, similar to Tanger operations in CT and around the country. And then across the street there are the Prime Outlets—the stores for which one does not usually find outlets—Juicy, Fresh Produce (when did clothing stores start sounding like eating establishments?), Coach, St. John, Armani, Neiman Marcus. And the people are buying! I would say, patriotic Americans all, except the parking lots at both places—the upscale La Cantera and the outlets—were full of cars from Mexico. I spotted license plates from more Mexican states than I can remember.

What’s happening? Tell Bubba that NAFTA is indeed working. And, thanks, Dubya, the value of the dollar against international currencies has fallen so low that now Mexicans are flooding the shopping centers, malls, and outlets of the border states. When I was a kid, Texans went to Mexico for bargains. Now Mexicans are coming here for bargains. Is this a great country or what?