retail Archives - understand-culture

The Corner Store

In June 2020, during the pandemic, the market research firm Kantar surveyed 8,500 households across Mexico about where they would shop after the lockdown. Kantar reported that la tienda de la esquina, the corner store, was “la opción que da más confianza a los hogares” (the option that gives households the most trust). It was chosen by 56 percent, mainly in the Mexico City metropolitan area.

The magazine Chilango remembered the corner stores of earlier years. “Sabíamos el nombre de los tenderos, y ellos sabían que eras hijo del señor o la señora tal” (We knew the shopkeepers’ names, and they knew that you were the son of Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so).

Direct Selling

According to the Mexican Association of Direct Sales (AMVD), about 3.1 million people in Mexico work in direct selling. The association put the industry’s sales at 88,574 million pesos in 2024.

In an article on catalog sales, Xataka México wrote that “el vendedor es alguien conocido por el comprador” (the seller is someone the buyer knows). The article described sellers knocking on their neighbors’ doors to offer their goods. The same article reported that fewer and fewer people trust sellers of this kind.

Complaints by Phone

Profeco, Mexico’s consumer protection agency, runs a service called Conciliaexprés. A consumer with a complaint calls Profeco or files a written complaint on its website, and a Profeco representative contacts the supplier to look for an agreement. The supplier must be registered in the system.

In 2025, the legal publication IDConline described the service as “una herramienta de conciliación rápida para resolver de forma ágil, reclamaciones en materia de consumo” (a tool for quick conciliation, to resolve consumer complaints swiftly).

Merolico

In popular speech, Chilango notes, the word merolico is linked to “una persona muy habladora” (a very talkative person).

According to México Desconocido, the word comes from Juan Rafael de Meraulyock, who arrived in Mexico in 1879 and sold remedies. He “pregonaba tener bálsamos para curar todos los padecimientos conocidos y por conocer” (proclaimed that he had balms to cure every ailment known and yet to be known). This origin rests on popular history, and the spelling of his name varies.

The Commercial Bureau

Mexico’s consumer protection agency, Profeco, runs the Buró Comercial. According to Expansión, it is a website that shows which companies have a registered adhesion contract, and “también si han tenido quejas u otros procedimientos” (also whether they have had complaints or other proceedings).

No Credit Today

Hoy no se fía, mañana sí. “No credit today, tomorrow yes.” The Mexico City magazine Chilango, in an article on the signs and cries of street markets, calls this sign “famoso” (famous).

The same article opens by naming a blunter version among the best-known cries and signs of the markets of Mexico City: Hoy no fío, mañana tampoco, “No credit today, and none tomorrow either.”

Güero

In Mexican markets, vendors call shoppers güero or güera, “fair one.” According to UnoTV, they do so “sin importar el tono de su piel o el color de su cabello” (whatever the tone of their skin or the color of their hair).

A Little Cheaper

¿No me lo deja más barato? “Won’t you let me have it a little cheaper?” Shoppers ask it at Mexican markets and tianguis, the open-air street markets. In 2026, TV Azteca Jalisco traced the custom of haggling to the markets of pre-Hispanic times. It said that the request also creates a bond between seller and customer.

On Credit at the Corner Store

In 2021, ANPEC, the national association of small retailers, surveyed about 1,200 neighborhood grocery stores. According to the newspaper Por Esto!, 78 percent of the shopkeepers said that customers asked them for fiado, goods on credit. The share of customers asking for credit had roughly doubled, from about two in ten in early 2020 to about four in ten in the first half of 2021.

Something Extra

A pilón is the small extra that a Mexican vendor adds to a purchase, such as one more quesadilla. An article in the journal of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico defines it as “una cantidad extra de mercancía que el comerciante regala a su cliente en agradecimiento por su compra,” an extra quantity of goods that the vendor gives the customer in thanks for the purchase.

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy lists a Mexican verb for the other side of the relationship. Amarchantarse means “hacerse cliente habitual de un comerciante,” to become a regular customer of a merchant.