The pain of going out of business
Economists say that inflation is the tax of the poor and it makes sense, they are the ones who suffer the most from the loss of purchasing power of the currency. However, no one is exempt, as was the case of Roberto Vidal, who now, at 71 years old, recounts the hard experience of closing his business due to this problem.
“From 1972 to 1981 I worked at the Modelo brewery, it was a very good company. For many years I was a driver, although I also helped in stores and in the yard. In 1981 I left there, and since I had just had my third child, I sold a truck I had and bought a truck for a route. A compadre worked on the permits and he got me one.
“About three years later, my wife began to do well in a gas company where she worked and we opened a store in a space that we rented on the corner of the house where we lived in Atizapán (Edomex). We bought things in markets and sometimes in the central (supply) itself to sell them, it was a small store, but it did not go badly.
“In 1986 we closed it, suddenly all prices went to the sky, we stopped buying in the markets and we only went to stock up at the supply center, which was still a little cheaper. We only bought fruit and vegetables, sometimes some meat, but we had to stop buying the rest of the things, like snacks, because we didn’t have enough to carry the essentials. My wife had the idea of going to Jamaica (market) and stocking up on flowers, but people didn’t bring them either.
“At that time sales dropped, the neighbors who used to buy from us asked us where we stocked up, but we didn’t tell them because they just wanted to know so they could go there too.
“Working in the truck put a lot of pressure on me and it wasn’t enough for me anymore, and my wife wasn’t doing any better either, even though her salary was being raised. People hardly bought the same amount from us anymore, they went for less and always, always wanted to ask us on credit or haggled. I put up a sign that I didn’t haggle or trust, but people did it anyway. We closed down flat when the accounts were no longer coming out.
“Right now everything is expensive, but in the 80s I did see more expensive things. I don’t know if it’s because I was at the store too, but right now you complete something, so you did have to choose one thing or another, if you found it.”
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