Shopping at Woolworth's

I suppose that there are young people out there who have never heard of Woolworth's.  But for those of us of a "certain age", Woolworth's used to be as much a part of our lives as Walmart is today.  The chain of "five and dime" stores was once one of the largest retailers in the world.

Woolworth's in the United States is long gone, but Woolworth Mexicana, which was originally a subsidiary of the parent company, still exists.  In fact, there is a Woolworth just a few blocks from my apartment in Mexico City.

During my visits to Mexico City, I will usually stop by the Woolworth store at least once.  I have often gone there to buy soccer shirts for my nephew.  They carry official gear from Mexican and Spanish teams at a fraction of the cost at other stores.  (Why an official soccer shirt should often cost $100 US is beyond me.  Here I can get them for less than $10 US.)

My nephew has grown so much (he is now well over six feet tall), that I'm no longer sure that even the extra large shirts will fit him.  However, yesterday I made a trip to Woolworth to buy some things for myself.  I did not bring enough warm clothes with me on this trip.

After the tropical temperatures in Mérida, Mexico City seems quite chilly.  I'm not complaining however; I could be spending January in Ohio!  Because of its high elevation, Mexico City is never extremely hot, even in the summer.  However this winter seems colder than previous years.  The lows have been in the low forties.  It warms up during the day, but it has been struggling to make it to the low seventies by mid-afternoon.  In the mornings and evenings it is definitely not shirt-sleeve weather.  Furthermore, my apartment does not have central heat, so it is chilly until the afternoon sun streams through the windows.

So I decided that I needed to supplement the leather jacket that I was wearing when I left Ohio.  At Woolworth I bought a fleece pullover, a lighter weight pullover of the Real Madrid soccer team, and a hoodie of the Barcelona soccer team.

In addition I bought a small fleecy blanket that I can put over me when I am watching TV in the evening.  (Alejandro can give it to his mom when I leave.  She complains about the chilly winter temperatures.)  I also bought myself a Real Madrid tee-shirt and a Cruz Azul cap.  (Cruz Azul is one Mexico City's soccer teams.)  My purchases totaled 1005 pesos... a whopping $53 US.  I was also pleased that all of my purchases were made in Mexico... nothing was made in China.

When I am in Mexico City, I never carry my credit cards unless I am going to use one.  My passport and even my driver's license are tucked away in the apartment too.  I took one credit card with me for my Woolworth shopping spree.  When I went to pay, the cashier asked me for identification.  Oops!  All I had on me was the photocopy of the picture page of my passport which I always carry.  Fortunately that was good enough.