She Said...

July 21, 2007

On my way to the Lazy Lizard last Thursday, I thought I’d stop in at a “Hugs and Kisses”, a.k.a.: O X X O, to get some chewing gum. I was introduced to the Maxair brand a few years ago, little Chiclet-type squares that pack a wallop, similar to wasabi, when you chew one. Sort of clears up one’s sinuses in one fell swoop. Well, for some reason unknown to me, this gum has nearly disappeared off the shelves of most local shops lately. All kinds of other, bland, boring brands, but not this one.

As expected, the shop at the corner of Olas Altas didn’t have any, so I walked down to the one at the corner of Amapas. (They really are popping up at every corner, aren’t they? Like the Starbucks up north…) Anyway, the owner of that shop just shook his head, sadly, when I asked him how it was that that brand of gum had disappeared, or had the manufacturer discontinued it. And then, as if he’d reached the end of his rope, he blurted: “How many cans of tuna do you think they left me? Come here! Look for yourself!” Exasperated, he pointed to a single can of tuna on the floor, next to a few other items he was in the process of stocking when I walked in and interrupted him. I just looked at him. “One! One can of tuna! Now that everyone is here on holidays, now that they’re all asking me for tuna to make sandwiches! Can you believe it?”

He walked back to the cash counter, pulled out a bunch of sheets from beneath the cash machine and waved them in the air as he yelled “And then they complain to me that my sales are down! They don’t supply me with anything to sell!”

I felt sorry for the man, but his was not the first such complaint I’ve heard from OXXO franchisees. I’m not a businesswoman, but I really cannot fathom this huge national chain’s policy. They’ve opened shops everywhere, they pop up overnight, everywhere, but then they don’t supply them with the products customers want most. The lady at the OXXO corner of Basilio Badillo and Insurgentes, the one where I used to pay all my utility bills, lost a whole bunch of customers over the last year as items they liked were no longer being stocked.

I was very interested in the statistics issued by PV’s Tourism Trust, a.k.a. the PV Office of Conventions and Visitors sometimes (see separate article in this issue). It made me smile, or maybe it was more a smirk than a smile. It reminded me of the hundreds of thousands of tax payers’ dollars that office spent a few years ago on advertising Vallarta in South America and Europe. The former isn’t even mentioned in the stats, I assume it must represent even less than one percent. Aero Mexico even pushed all sorts of special fares to and from Brazil… To no avail. And I remembered when our former mayor went on a quickie European tour with a whole bunch of his city hall cronies. You know the kind I’m referring to, “If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium”-style. At the time, city councilpersons of the opposing party questioned the validity of the trip, and the potential benefits. I guess they had learned from when their own party’s mayor had done the same a few years earlier, returning with contracts signed with the Spanish …who then all went straight from the Puerto Vallarta international airport directly to the Spanish-owned Riu Hotel in our neighboring state of Nayarit. And then a while back, these PAN party council members –and the media- derided the mayor’s intention to promote our town …in China! How does the saying go? Something like “Those who do not learn from their mistakes, are bound to repeat them”?

I just hope that if the municipal authorities ever do decide to go ahead with their (occult, silent) plan to pave over the little bit of beauty left on the island, Isla Cuale, with 64 cement cubicles to accommodate all the vendors who were displaced from their stalls in the 3 parks that were exterminated over the last couple of years, the people will once again demonstrate their opposition. It worked last time, it can work again.

For those of you who did not attend the Gala Dinner at La Petite France in honor of Bastille Day, I must tell you that aside from the food which was superb, as always and as expected, the show was something else! (Yes, I admit to being very partial to French food…) These young ladies of the Versus group put on a unique demonstration of flamenco and contemporary dance, with superb costumes, some of which reminded me of the ones we saw at the famous Venice Festival in Italy many, many years ago…

The media has devoted a lot of space and time to the recent decision taken by the Bahía de Banderas OCV, to rename the region “Riviera Nayarit”. I hope it works for them, because to the best of my knowledge, folks in Canada and the U.S. are most familiar with the Vallarta name, while still unaware of what Nayarit is. Until recently, the big hotels to the north of the Ameca River advertised themselves on the internet as being in Puerto Vallarta. So I thought I’d Google some of them just to see if there had been any changes made. These are my findings:

Paradise Village describes itself as “The Best of Puerto Vallarta”. The Marival Grand & Club Suites is honest; their beautifully-designed site shows a map with the exact location of the hotel. The Grand Velas All Suites and Spa Resort page shows a Nuevo Vallarta (does that name still exist?) location, which it claims is 15 minutes away from both the airport AND Puerto Vallarta. Hmmm… The Occidental Grand is a little more accurate, describing its location as 15 minutes from the airport and 25 from the center of town. The Royal Decameron’s sites were down when I tried them, but the Google search results read “The Royal Decameron Complex is located in Vallarta, which is located just 15 minutes from the Puerto Vallarta International Airport and 20 minutes from downtown.” Now this truly nice resort is in Bucerías, which is even farther from town than what we used to call Nuevo Vallarta. And when was the last time any one of you made it from the airport to downtown in 5 minutes? Maybe they have a shortcut I’m not familiar with, or perhaps they’re referring to the time it would take a water taxi to travel the distance.

I still don’t know why some entrepreneur with a vision doesn’t set up such a business. I’m no businesswoman, but I think it would be extremely successful - and fun! Like a ferry, using hovercrafts that skim over the water at great speeds. Now there’s a thought! After all, I read that something like a billion dollars was going to be invested on the north shore of the bay. A hovercraft or ten wouldn’t even make a dent in that budget…

posted by Anna Reisman @ 5:02 PM