.
Following on with the loyalty and community support theme, we should then consider how many smaller shops were put out of business when Playero itself opened and grew dontcha think?
I can understand why someone new to the area might think that Playero grew by putting small shops out of business, but that is only because they have been here a relatively short time. The reality is Playero was forced to expand because Sosua grew, and grew and grew.
I first visited Sosua about 1986. My wife and I traveled by guagua from Samana and spent several days here. We spent one or two nights in the North Shore hotel, which was the building where the EPS office is now, and a couple of nights in the new Ocean 1 Place which was outside the city proper. The pavement ended at the corner just past El Flow and Rhumba Bar. After that it was like walking in the country. Playero was located on the corner across the street from what is now Sanatra and opposite the new pizza place.
But Sosua was starting to grow thanks to the then new Puerto Plata airport which opened in 1985, I believe.
El Neptuno, where I live, opened in 1986, one of the places built to serve to the influx of travelers from the US. It was then an Apart Hotel. One Ocean Place was another one.
Houses were being built as well as condos. People were coming and wanted groceries.
It wasn't long before the store occupied by Playero wasn't adequate so they moved to the present location and used the former store for storage.
People continued to come, the store was too small, stock was too limited to meed the demands, so the move was made to the location of the larger Playero.
More recently, that was enlarged to provide more space in the aisle (a complaint of shoppers) and to increase the offerings.
Lots of requests were made for products, including by DR1 members. Quite a number of things were asked for, not just cottage cheese, although that is the one I remember best.
All this time, the small colmados continued to operate, and do so even today. Their customers, many of whom don't have refrigeration or live where electricity is not reliable, shop for the next meal or two. They buy a little cooking oil, not a bottle. They buy a small piece of meat, enough for the next meal, a potato or two, etc. Their customers are the same people who bought before Playero, they serve a group that Playero doesn't.
The growth of Playero was because Sosua grew, not because the store put small stores out of business, like Walmart''s does in the US.
