Comments for The Art of Getting in Line and Not Getting Out of Line in Brazil at http://www.brazzil.com , comment 1 to 30 out of 20 comments http://www.brazzil.com Sat, 14 Sep 2013 20:54:40 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-10036 Anyone who tries and compare Brazil and the states just doesnt know wtf he\'s talking about. If it\'s so similiar, why in the hell are their a million brasilian illegals in the states...and 10+ million illegals in all. Why in the hell are these people with these great countries risking their lives to go there if their country is \"similiar\". I just love how some equate America with McDonalds...lol. That must be the only experience you have to compare it with!!! Here in Brazil, LINES, LINES, LINES. At the doctors office, bank, supermarket. Ever try and go to the doctors office and bank in the same day??? Not where I live here in the northeast...it\'s not possible! World leader in crime, corruption, poverty, police brutality and prostitution. 7% of 18-25 years olds are in college(university). 30% illiteracy rate overall!!! Ever get a phone bill, or any bill here in Brazil that was incorrect?? Good fucking luck!! 2-6 months and 100\'s of hours of phone calls, personal visits, etc. to get a credit placed on your next fatura for a mistake that they made. Funny the comment about \"rich brasilians don\'t need a mortgage to buy a house\". Well, you can bet your ass, that if you could get a 30 year mortgage here with a 6% yearly interest rate there wouldn\'t be ONE brasilian buying \"a vista\". Even the richest americans get mortgages...you do that when you can make more money on investing your money than paying interest on a loan!! But Brasilians would know nothing about that since 3-5% per MONTH is a good rate here....and you\'ll NEVER get a 30 year loan....NEVER. Ever get large amounts of money sent to brazil from outside brazil?? My partners sent 150,000 pounds sterling here a year and a half ago....took 12 DAYS to get it put into our account once it arrived in Brazil!!! DAYS...not HOURS!!! Ever buy a piece of property here in Brazil?? Good luck, the land title, if the seller has one(!!!), is usually in a standard of measurement that they havent used for decades!!! You have to hire topographers to go out and survey your land to see exactly how much you have, and where the boundaries are...then good luck with the cartorio, and if the seller has his IPTU(property taxes) paid. I\'ve never seen a place with so many vultures in my life, but what would one expect in a place of so much poverty and crime. Where there are 1000\'s of laws, but their only words on a piece of paper because enforcement is non-existant. R-E-S-P-E-C-T...this word only exists in the portugues dictionary, it is NOT something that is practiced whatsoever, no respect for other people, no respect for things, no respect for the law. Just jump in your Fiat and drive like your ass is on fire 120 km\'s down the road endangering everyone and everything on your way! Oh yeah, it\'s 4:00 AM here right now...why am I still up? Because I was just awoken by a truckload full of idiots doing donuts for 20 minutes in front of my apartment building, and I live in a neighborhood where the apartments start at 400,000 reais!! You would think there would be a different \"level\" of people living here, with education, respect for others....you can forget that notion!!! - TheTruth Thu, 29 Dec 2005 22:59:13 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-9262 I cannot help thinking that if I spent millions of Reais opening a Superstore then Millions of Reais filling it will goods then I would want to take the customers money. That appears not to be the case in many supermarkets I have visited in Brasil. As a Brit married to a Brasilian, both my wife and I are amazed at the slow service. The difference between my wife and most of the comments from Brasilians above is that my wife is widely travelled and has seen the service offerred in stores overseas. I regared Brasilians as a hard working race, certainly more so than Europeans and Americans, so why are their Supermarkets so slow. The problem can only lie with the store owners. The rest of the world use low paid, part time, student type labour that are trained to operate efficiently so why are Brasilian till operators not the same? This week Wal-Mart opened in Goiania, it will be interesting to see if they model themselves on American type efficiency or they are brought down to the Brasilian level. And don\'t get me started on the banks!! - Guest Sat, 03 Dec 2005 11:04:31 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-9261 Reading this is like eating a McDonalds.....no matter how much you digest, you´re still left feeling hungry and somewhat disappointed. Glad to see that most of these light-weight articles are kept for the likes of Gringoes.com! - Guest Fri, 02 Dec 2005 18:15:56 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-9136 A poor attempt at being witty. [QUOTE]We have it in our photo album next to a picture of President Lula, the president of Brazil (large South American country South of Florida).[/QUOTE] Quite a telling line, isn\'t it? ;) - Guest Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:46:05 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8949 when i stayed in Goiania, for my first, in the longest time..we went into the store, i went to look for DVDs to bring back to the US, but then took me 30 minutes to realize that they wouldnt play on american DVD player.. wehn we finished shopping, we were inline waitng to pay.. it took maybe 45 minutes to pay for our stuff, and i took an american freind ( who learned that there were african descants in brazil) and he asked me why the stores have so many chasier boxes, but only a few open.. i didnt know.. but we got through the line, missed half of america.. but luckly my aunt recoreded it for me... - Guest Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:03:41 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8920 yes, interesting to see that even living \"some years now\" in an English speaking country doesn\'t daunt that Brazilian passion. I can just see him (or I suppose a very masculine her) doing that grumbling/ruminating noise in the throat/nose then spittin\' out a big globule of Brazilian phlegm, scratching his crotch and using his whiniest/loudest tone of voice to let loose that tirade......I guess that it\'s true, travel for some people doesn\'t broaden the mind, just the conversation, and really they \"doesn\'t know shit about other cultueres\" (sic) - Guest Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:18:12 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8915 What a nasty little Brazilian you are! Despite living in the USA for \"some years now\", your written English is still terrible. Furthermore, your angry rantings about Americans makes you appear so ignorant and stupid. If you detest the country that much why don´t you just fuck off and go home! - Guest Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:51:26 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8900 You fuck off!!! I\'m a brazilian who live in the US for some years now. Things here are not much better at all. People are dumb as hell. In Brazil becouse of unemployment people tend to work more efficiently, otherwise they loose their jobs. It has a line of unemployed people waiting to get their position. It\'s one strike and you are out! Here in the US, emploees treat the customers the way they want and they will not be fired! Here there are a lot of idiots like you, who live in their self centered world, doesn\'t know shit about other cultueres, then have trouble doing anything in another country. By the way, I prefer to wait in line and have some fresh fruit, then to eat Mcdonals very quickly in my car in a rush to go back to work so I can make more money, then have to spend time at the hospital with high cholesterol. Who knows even die young, becouse of stupid choices we make in life. Another thing, Americans think they are so rich. Rich people in Brazil don\'t have a mortgage in their house!!! Carrefour line is a small problem close to the ignorance of these people who ask me all the time in what continent Brasil is. - Guest Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:54:02 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8792 I American with a Brazillian wife, and lived in Sao Paulo for 3 yrs, so I can sympathize with the Carrefour stories, but when you live there you just go with the flow of things. My wife, a Paulistana, gets crazy when we return on vacation due to the endless lines, but life in Sampa is a series of endless lines, stores, traffic, banks-life in the us is easier but Brazil has its charms so \"descansar\" Debbie start shopping at SAM CLUB or use the Internet its easier. - Guest Thu, 03 Nov 2005 18:27:17 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8733 Nothing earth-shattering about the observations the writer makes about waiting in line at Carrefour...but they\'re true. It\'s happened to me many times at Carrefour in Belo Horizonte. The unpriced item, the team member on rollerskates, the family with children who move to the front of the line. As an American, I wasn\'t aggrevated by these experiences in Brazil, I was facinated by them. I was glad to see another culture sensitive to families with small children, or the elderly. I remember flying into Sao Paolo with a fou-year old and an infant, just to find about 300 people waiting to go through customs. We were quickly greeted by an airport employee who whisked us to the front of the line with no waiting. After travelling about 20 hours with small kids, that was VERY welcomed. I\'ve come to love the Brazilian culture. Like any other country, there are many problems there, but I appreciate how I\'m treated when I\'m there. Nice job to the author for capturing a slice of everyday life in Brazil. - Guest Tue, 01 Nov 2005 08:23:50 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8738 Everything in Brazil looks just as in the US or Canada, however is run by different people, efficiency deosn\'t exist here, at all levels, nobody cares, is not important for them, just relax, I guess the frustration comes from that, it looks so similar but it doesn\'t work! Brazilians are very polite person to person, but they behave very badly as a society, civility is late here. Burocracy is frustrating, everything takes five or more checkups, did you guys go to a cartorio? they say this come from portuguese tradition, it\'s just a pain. On the other hand some things work much better here, my daugther says school is much better here because she\'s learning and feels motivated to do so, but she would prefer move back to Canada, I don\'t know, good luck - Guest Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:21:39 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8730 Lighten up Jackass. Why did you take it so seriously? She is just making some observations she finds funny. It didn\'t come across as attacking, but yet here you are with an inferiority complex taking offense to something that should not be interpreted as insulting except to an imbecile that cannot tell the difference between observational humor and biting criticism. Now that was the latter for your information. Go suck some fresh fruit! :P - Guest Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:54:06 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8727 Didn you know that at Carrefour cahiers get a special course in being slow? Wher I live in Rio, I usually go to \'Presunic\'. Even on friday night or saturday it\'s faster than on a monday morning at Carrefour. - Guest Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:08:58 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8715 if it´s that hard for you to shop here in brazil, then, sweetheart, just go back to your fucking island and your fish\'n\'tips, that´d be much better, oh and specially the brazilian fruits that are frozen to get to UK markets, please buy lots of them, they will niver be as fresh as they are in here, way much better like that uh?! - Guest Sun, 30 Oct 2005 20:22:30 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8703 Of course the people working at the supermarket are dimwits. When you can only pay them the equivelant of $100 a month because the governement has taxes you have to pay for each worker that reach 114% of their salary of course these people are going to be the uneducated poor. You see the exact same thing in the US when you go to grocery store in the south of the US where they pay about the minimum wage versus on the west coast where grocery stores are unionized and the average worker makes about 3 times the minimum wage. I haven\'t found the cashiers to be any worse than at grocery stores that pay the minimum wage in the US or at Wal Mart. - Guest Sun, 30 Oct 2005 10:09:25 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8700 This is all so comical. I have not lived overseas or out of country (US) since the nineties. We are so super efficient and impatient here in the US, I wonder, where are we all rushing off to? I\'m rushing off to Brazil. - Guest Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:41:19 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8698 I have never encountered even a semi-inteligent cashier or store clerk in the country. I am sure they all must take there dimwit tablets each day before going to work. And about the customers removing their carts, this would require Brazilians to think ahead and also have to think about perhaps about their fellow citizens behind tem ....but this would be asking to much. Regarding counterfeit notes I know I have passed many through the supermakets and not one ever was discovered by the dimwits.They were dispensed to me by the ATM\'s and this was the best way not to take the loss. It is best to use $100 note Reals anyways as they don\'t have a clue if it is counterfeit. The dimwits just look at the note, look at you and then proceed to complete the transaction.rsrsrsr - Guest Sat, 29 Oct 2005 22:18:50 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8691 You described perfectly my experiences at the supermarket/banks here in Juiz de Fora MG! It takes a while to get used to, and requires a lot of patience... the only thing you missed out is that people tend to leave their trolleys at the checkout once they have emptied them - it\'s up to the next person in line to remove the trolley so they can get access to the checkout. Also note that if someone just wants to change a bank note, they have the right to jump a queue of 20 people who have been waiting for an hour at the bank. PS: to avoid the wait for unpriced items I learnt that you can say 2 words - \"pode deixar\" (pronounced podgey dayshar), they then immediate discard the item. PPS: I have yet to see the checkout operator discover a counterfeit bank note - do you think that it involves lots of sirens/flashing lights??? - Guest Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:39:09 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8683 \"Why don\'t you watch the film...City of God...gives you a fine example of typical life in Brasil.\" Nothing about the movie City of God is typical--all it does is glorify violence, drugs and sex and perpetuates the negative image that so many Brazilians have of the favela. True, there are plenty of bad people in the favelas and lots of crime etc but what that movie didn\'t show was all the good people who live in the favelas and are just trying to survive from day to day without succumbing to crime and corruption. It didn\'t show what causes the poverty either...it just feeds into the fear that most Brazilians have and makes it look like Brazil is a completely lawless, amoral society which is not true...a place not without it\'s problems, yes, but certainly not the hellish, cruel place depicted in that movie - Guest Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:50:59 +0100 http://www.brazzil.com/home-mainmenu-1/157-october-2005/9451.html#comment-8656 The bank- can Brazilians go to online banking..or bill paying by mail at the end of the month..more bank hours?? I mean why in the world do the lines never end? The supermarket- this woman speaks the truth concerning the lines.....The fact is that Brazil is a place of friendly, genuine people and beautiful food and is gerogeous country. However, it is not a place where the common citizen or the coustomer comes first nor is it an effiecent country by any stretch of the imagination. - Guest Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:21:17 +0100