Just my musings. No question here:
I bought a 10 lb bag of rice. The people that I live with always by what they need from the colmado and it makes me a little nervous to never have food in the house. Somebody gets hungry, off to the colmado. I personally don't have much faith in the Colmado as it's natural for me to be independent and not rely on others. However, her the colmado is a life line and they frequently provide credit to their customers.
I saved a few pesos on the bulk 10 lbs of rice, maybe 70 peso. What ran 210 pesos for high quality rice would be 280 pesos for broken rice in the Colmodo, which is a greater than 33% mark up. In my mind, it's well worth the investment to buy in bulk. The Colmado is a convenience store like any other. You can expect to pay a sizable markup for the convenience.
They funny thing is that the rice disappeared in less than a week. Just gone. Whatever money I saved over the Colmado simply vanished. And, the riced seemed to disappear in two large amounts. I asked around and as usual, nobody knew anything.
Rice is a stable here and not being able to eat wheat, it's a stable for me too. However, I can buy a 3# bag of rice and it will last for weeks. There are 3 others in the household. The 7 year old will push rice around his plate and try to spread it out in the time honored traditional of pretending to eat something that is distinctly distasteful. The same 7 year old that will wolf down noodles in slurpy, noisy delight, but rice is definitely safe with him. The other two definitely eat rice probably in line with myself. I'd estimate that 4 lbs of rice for a week would be about right. 5 or 6 lbs would surprise me. 10 lbs of rice in a week would be astronomical and unimaginable. And, it doesn't explain the two large withdrawals.
Money seems safe in the house, so I don't think anybody is outright stealing. We behave like a family. I don't think blatant theft is the issue. Yet, l0 lbs disappeared and nobody is owning up to it.
I can only think of two things:
First, is that the 7 year old is in school or colegio. Perhaps a sizable donation of rice was made to the school as one of the missing “chunks” coincided with also purchasing paper plates, plastic glasses, and some plastic forks. It's possible and even likely.
Second, after some closer observation, I've come to the conclusion that food is shared widely. If you have food, you offer it far and wide to anybody that has need. Certainly, the people that I live with have had economic scrapes in the past, so the mandate to share food is definitely there. it's likely a given that we're feeding more people than the 4 in the household.
Still, it doesn't explain the second large withdrawal. I suspect somebody owed somebody food. Or, maybe it was a donation to the church. Taking money would be stealing, but donating food is within acceptable Dominican behavior.
At any rate, the 33% mark up at the colmado is starting to look like a bargain. I'm certainly not motivated to buy another 10 lb bag although I doubt it went to nefarious purposes.
Ah, I can't help it. I enjoy a good mystery. Another 10lb bag of rice coming up.
I bought a 10 lb bag of rice. The people that I live with always by what they need from the colmado and it makes me a little nervous to never have food in the house. Somebody gets hungry, off to the colmado. I personally don't have much faith in the Colmado as it's natural for me to be independent and not rely on others. However, her the colmado is a life line and they frequently provide credit to their customers.
I saved a few pesos on the bulk 10 lbs of rice, maybe 70 peso. What ran 210 pesos for high quality rice would be 280 pesos for broken rice in the Colmodo, which is a greater than 33% mark up. In my mind, it's well worth the investment to buy in bulk. The Colmado is a convenience store like any other. You can expect to pay a sizable markup for the convenience.
They funny thing is that the rice disappeared in less than a week. Just gone. Whatever money I saved over the Colmado simply vanished. And, the riced seemed to disappear in two large amounts. I asked around and as usual, nobody knew anything.
Rice is a stable here and not being able to eat wheat, it's a stable for me too. However, I can buy a 3# bag of rice and it will last for weeks. There are 3 others in the household. The 7 year old will push rice around his plate and try to spread it out in the time honored traditional of pretending to eat something that is distinctly distasteful. The same 7 year old that will wolf down noodles in slurpy, noisy delight, but rice is definitely safe with him. The other two definitely eat rice probably in line with myself. I'd estimate that 4 lbs of rice for a week would be about right. 5 or 6 lbs would surprise me. 10 lbs of rice in a week would be astronomical and unimaginable. And, it doesn't explain the two large withdrawals.
Money seems safe in the house, so I don't think anybody is outright stealing. We behave like a family. I don't think blatant theft is the issue. Yet, l0 lbs disappeared and nobody is owning up to it.
I can only think of two things:
First, is that the 7 year old is in school or colegio. Perhaps a sizable donation of rice was made to the school as one of the missing “chunks” coincided with also purchasing paper plates, plastic glasses, and some plastic forks. It's possible and even likely.
Second, after some closer observation, I've come to the conclusion that food is shared widely. If you have food, you offer it far and wide to anybody that has need. Certainly, the people that I live with have had economic scrapes in the past, so the mandate to share food is definitely there. it's likely a given that we're feeding more people than the 4 in the household.
Still, it doesn't explain the second large withdrawal. I suspect somebody owed somebody food. Or, maybe it was a donation to the church. Taking money would be stealing, but donating food is within acceptable Dominican behavior.
At any rate, the 33% mark up at the colmado is starting to look like a bargain. I'm certainly not motivated to buy another 10 lb bag although I doubt it went to nefarious purposes.
Ah, I can't help it. I enjoy a good mystery. Another 10lb bag of rice coming up.
