Flying by the Seat of My Pants (and Other Mexican Shopping Adventures)

When one orders an appliance for delivery in the United States, unless it's a special order, you can have it on your doorstep within a few days. In Mexico, in my experience, that's not always the case.

Picture this: me, with an online cart filled with big ticket items–televisions, mattresses, a washer, the works, while trying to choose a delivery date. The month was full. And the following month? All of those dates were greyed out too.

A thinker and a doer, that's me. So I pivoted. I'd select in-store pickup, hire a driver to help haul things, and figure out the rest. I spent a weekend comparison shopping across three stores and ultimately settled on Liverpool. I'd done my homework and while a lot of people recommended it, others said it was overpriced, but the things I needed were genuinely cheaper there. And I wasn't new to in-store pickup in Mexico. I'd ordered a tub, light fixtures, and ceiling fans that way before. My realtor picked everything up without a hitch. I figured Liverpool would be the same.

I was wrong. I just didn't know it until I clicked to confirm my purchase.

Telling you I was shocked by the availability dates, doesn't do it justice. I was floored. Some things wouldn't be available for a week. Others a month. A mattress, mattress, y'all, wouldn't be available for five months.

I fired up Google Translate and sent a very nice email to customer service asking to cancel. They replied kindly, but told me I'd need to call because they required sensitive information to process it. What followed was a football Sunday where I spent half the day nervous about my team and the other half trying to figure out how to cancel an order in a language I don't speak. The Microsoft translator app couldn't keep up with the automated message. Skype wanted me to pay for the call, and I am cheap, so that was a no. After several tries and a lot of Googling, I finally asked a colleague in my office building to make the call for me. She did. It worked.

I'm a consummate planner. I do not like leaving things to chance. And yet, here I was, flying by the seat of my pants. We would have to wait until we got to Mexico to try to make the purchases in person.

So my realtor, whom I cannot praise highly enough, took us to Home Depot and then Sam's Club to look at appliances in person. And y'all, that was a whole education.

Americans have been sold a bill of goods. We walk around thinking we have the most advanced version of everything, but other countries just have different things, and different is often more practical. Sometimes, their baseline is something we pay extra for.

Take something as basic as a stove. In America, the standard is four burners, an oven, and a broiler. Here, I kept seeing five and six burner stoves, some with a built-in griddle, some with a glass cover that turns the cooktop into extra prep space when you're not cooking. And they weren't expensive. The frills came standard.

Then there are the ovens. Most open from the top, like we're used to, but you can also find ones that open from the side. Here's the part that stopped me: some ovens pull the rack out when you open the door. You know the whole production of checking if your food is done — hunting for the pot holders, pulling the dish out because the oven light isn't cutting it? Gone. You just open the door.

The washers and dryers were their own revelation. Have you ever seen an all-in-one lavasecadora? Washer and dryer, same machine. The reviews aren't great, things dry slowly and they're prone to breaking down, but that's not the point. The point is that option exists and it's genuinely clever.

The refrigerators stopped me cold. Some have the traditional water line hookup. Others have something I'd never seen: a bin inside the fridge that you fill yourself. No plumber, no water line connection. The water travels from that bin to a dispenser on the door. Press a button and it makes ice. I've had a perfectly good ice maker at home for years that I've never used, and somehow this workaround felt like it had outsmarted me.

After all of that, I gave Sam's Club some of my money. We got to the register and my mom's membership card didn't work. No problem. The cashier pulled out a card from somewhere, scanned it, and I paid. That's just how it goes sometimes.

The mattresses weren't in King size that day, but they were expected within a couple of days, so we headed to the front to schedule delivery. Three to five days, they told us.

My realtor walked right outside, where an older gentleman was sitting at a folding table with a large binder and reading glasses. I have no idea what she said to him, but for less than half of Sam's delivery fee, he agreed to deliver my purchases that same day. Sam's let him do it. He even negotiated a lower rate to come back with the mattresses the next day.

I'm learning so much about how this city operates, how business gets done. These are resourceful, hardworking people, and I mean that genuinely. It also requires patience from me, because I can't always get things when I want them. But watching my realtor walk outside and solve a problem in about ninety seconds? That was worth the whole trip.

Flying by the seat of my pants just may be the exhilarating experience I need.