Downtown Buenos Aires
There are hundreds of typewriters in this store front.
For as many years as I have lived in this city and the same store has always been here, two blocks up from the main square Plaza de Mayo in the heart of the business district.
The only thing that changes is a new hand written price on that same old ribbon-writter due to the ever collapsing Argentine mango, some call it plata, others guita, still others will tell you that 1,000 mangos is una luca. Either way the Argentine peso is done.
These same models have not moved. Every morning they open the doors and put "Today's Special" out front with its sun faded price tag, despite the ever changing peso.
Check this baby out!
Perfect for that inevitable typewriter emergency, this one was owned by a little old lady from Pasantina!
She was careful not to put scratches anywhere near the color selector. This one is a steal at $2400.00 or roughly u$s 90.00
Don't worry, by the time I publish this blog the dollar price will be much less. If it didn't weigh thirty five pounds, I could ship it to you!
Today I went in to by a pocket currency counter for, yeah you guessed it, $2500.00 pesos. Battery operated, fits in your pocket, great for counting cash when you sell that hundred dollar bill. The only one he had was in the window and was too difficult to get at. Plenty of hefty typewriters to put in the old back pack, but those pesky money counters. Not much demand for them so they only keep on in stock. And it is in the display window.
As I walked in, I had to squeeze by the paper shredder, on sale today and today only for thirty five lucas (we say 35 grand). Now you know some Argie Spanish. You can see the owner sitting back there working on his hand pump adding machine to figure out which typewriters need to be restocked. He has had the place since his dad left it to him in the mid-eighties.
I may go back and get that bill counter tomorrow...
Oh, wait. there it is for una luca less!
The internet almost makes this store superfluous!
Some things never go out of style (in Argentina)
