Morumbi is a district of Sao Paulo, quite close to the hotel that we are staying in. There is a large-ish shopping mall nearby. Not large by United States standards but large for Sao Paulo where land is at a premium and buildings go up rather than out.
It seems that wandering aimlessly around shopping malls is a family past-time at the weekend in Sao Paulo. There are a few of what I would call "chain stores", the sort of thing that you would find in any shopping center, but by far the largest number are the independent boutique type stores, the sort where the assistants pounce on you the minute you wander through the door. Clearly they are paid on commission which may be quite tricky because from what I can gather, people do not actually buy anything. After a couple of hours wandering around ourselves, all I managed to spend was $ 9.00 buying 25 tea bags - sticker shock continues. By comparison, 80 tea bags in a US grocery store cost around $ 4.00
Now, given that the GDP of Brazil is around $ 8000 per capita and the United States is $ 38,000 how on earth do the average people of Brazil actually afford to shop at "Shopping Morumbi?" Well, clearly they do not. No shopping bags is a bit of a gaveaway.
That said, the food court was fairly full so clearly Brazilians love to eat.
Here is another observation of Brazilians. Their shape is completely different to us Northern Hemisphere dwellers. Steve tried on several jackets and they were all too long in the arms and tight around the middle. The last thing I would say is that Steve is over weight but we could not find anything to fit. Then I tried to buy sneakers and I had the choice of 2 pairs and one of those were men's shoes. Clearly Brazilians have little feet.
Next time I come to the United States I think an empty suitcase is in order.
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