We had business downtown and I asked my husband to go to Falabella. Since they announced they'll be closing shop in Argentina, I was wondering if there was any sale going on. On the website, it seems somehow business as usual (some offers but nothing extraordinary). Instead, as we walked through called Florida we were facing an increasing number of people with 3-4 megabags from Falabella. It looked like Christmas' Eve on the 34th Street in NY.
We entered Falabella and it was like Century 21st on a Black Friday. Very few items left and stuff piled on the floor, after people rummaged over them. The queues at the checkout had 40 people in line. Broken items everywhere. It was not easy to go through what was left because there were Stanley thermos next to a broken bowl, a cup, a placemat, two plastic lunch boxes, etc.
Yesterday and today there was a further 25% off for Galicia's clients and 3 installments free of interests on certain categories.
Most items were 30% off, many were 40% off or less. They aren't even priced to the current prices, but there are barcode reader that provide the price. On some items the price was cut off. I guess they'll cut the price more as the final closure approaches.
Currently, the store at Unicenter is still closed and clerks were unpacking boxes labelled 'Florida', hence I think they are moving their stock from Unicenter to Florida.
While we were queueing at the checkout, two ladies in their 50s before us commented on how nice was the lamp I was holding, and asked me where I found it. They also wanted to know where I found the tablecloth and if it was available in blue. This was their 4th or 5th trip in these two days (there aren't shopping carts, so people pile up stuff onto themselves) and said that the other days it was full of clients, and today not so much. For me, it had more clients than I was used to see in normal times, because the prices were really good even by US standard. Except that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to find first world goods at first world prices in Argentina!
We bought a hanging lamp, Spanish spices and a tablecloth, all for 38 USD.
We didn't visit the other store (the one with clothes) for lack of time and money. There were arbolitos in calle Florida, it looked like business as usual, but the crowd was about half than usual.
We even ate a slice of pizza and fugazzeta on the sidewalk of Las Cuartetas on Av. Corrientes. It wasn't very crowded. We stayed the minimum amount of time. It was like visiting Argentina again after 6 months and I enjoyed it.
