Giving In to "El Buen Fin"

Back home I would never, ever venture out to go shopping on Black Friday.  I wrote in my previous post that this is the "Buen Fin", Mexico's weekend-long equivalent to Black Friday... and I succumbed to the shopping urge.

It all started this morning when Alejandro and I went out for breakfast at VIPS.  At a nearby table there was an older gentleman wearing a very snazzy sweater with the emblem of UNAM (the National University of Mexico).  I told Alejandro that I really liked the sweater, and I wondered if they sell them at the university.  Alejandro said that they probably do.  We had been trying to decide what to do today since, between the holiday weekend and the biggest shopping event of the year, traffic was going to be even more horrendous than usual.  We decided to take the Metrobus down to the UNAM campus and check out the university store.

From the Metrobus stop it was a good hike across the campus.  We finally arrived at the UNAM Store, and if was not what I was expecting.

This was nothing like the typical college bookstore that also sells college souvenirs.  This was a store like Walmart  or Target selling groceries, clothing, housewares and electronics.  It caters to the faculty and student body (who probably get a discount year-round), but it is open to the general public.  I didn't think that I was going to find what I wanted, but in the men's clothing department, there was a large selection of UNAM apparel.

I bought my sweater and several other items as gifts.  Surprisingly, this store was also participating in the "Buen Fin", and I got a 40% discount on my sweater!