Go shopping.

One thing you probably take for granted in the US that Brasileans never get to do is window shop when the stores are closed. The stores here all have metal doors that are pulled down and locked when they´re closed. If you walk down a street at night or on Sunday, you have no idea what kind of establishment you are passing because all of those gray metal doors look alike. It´s probably different in the malls, but how often do you walk around in a mall with closed stores?

Speaking of malls, I don´t know of any in São Paulo like the big sprawling suburban malls in the US with acres and acres of parking lot. I am familiar with a couple of malls that are very similar internally to the ones in the US, with several floors of retail shops, food courts and multiplex cinemas, but (I think) without the big anchor department stores. The two that I know of have underground parking, but not nearly as much as there would be in the US, because lots of people arrive there on buses or the subway. I do know of one huge mall on the outskirts of the city of Campinas, about an hour away from São Paulo, that is exactly like the US model, and something like that may exist in São Paulo too and I just don´t know about it.

I saw a headline in the paper the other day, by the way, that the population of São Paulo just went over the 11 million mark. I know people of asked me at various times about the population, and I never knew the answer.

Another little retail oddity. There are areas in São Paulo where all the stores sell the same things. If I want embroidery thread for cross stitching, I go the area next to the São Bento subway station and there are dozens of fabric stores that all sell what I need. A couple of weeks ago when Heitor´s ipod headset quick working, I went to several stores to find a replacement, but all they sold were the little ear buds. Finally a guy in one of the stores told me to go to Santa Ifigênia street, and he was right. It is a street where there are stores selling every imaginable type of thing electrical and electrical-related. I know of a similar area for luggage stores, and even stores that sell the kind of things a front-yard mechanic would want (oddly enough right next door to the area of fabric stores). There is another type of mall here that you might encounter on any given street. It has several floors of retail shops that all sell the same things. I know of one that has 3 or 4 floors of nothing but shoe stores. Another where the stores all sell either cameras, or clocks and wristwatches.

I hope this has inspired you to go shopping...for the sake of the US economy.

Tchau