Unimaginably small businesses sprout up throughout San Miguel de Allende. The other day I happened upon this food store. It apparently hasn't yet opened this morning.
The modest offering includes jello with rompope (eggnog), cookies, flan (custard), tuna or jam empanadas (turnovers) and churros (deep fried dough sticks dredged in sugar). Home cooking maybe?
The enterprise has the hallmark of a resident who needs a few extra pesos. In these tough times there seems to be more such businesses than usual. No way do they generate serious cash. Yet hopeful people start them, banking perhaps more on the generosity of neighbors than on servicing actual market demand.
I doubt profits even reach the level of the minimum wage (currently around $50 pesos per day).
Efforts like this are rare up north, except for occasional lemonade stands. They wouldn't return enough to justify the effort. But a few extra pesos may be all this entrepreneur needs to make ends meet. Does the presence of this micro-tiendita point to the absence of an economic safety net? Or is it testimony to the initiative and resourcefulness of Mexican people?
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