Our furnished apartment in Escazú Village came with one 50-inch smart TV located in the main living area. After a single night of viewing HGTV (a station we were able to get in English from our Costa Rican cable provider), John decided that a 65-inch TV was needed to properly view house hunting and renovations across the 11 foot distance between the TV and the sectional where we sat.
But where to buy? We had two choices for TV purchases – Walmart and PriceSmart. Walmart is located across the street from our apartment complex, a proximity we continue to take advantage of daily. PriceSmart is within walking distance, about a mile. (PriceSmart is like Costco in the US. It’s the largest warehouse membership club in Central America and the Caribbean. The look-and-feel is very similar to Costco.)
After visiting both stores, we decided that PriceSmart offered a bigger selection (they had 2 65-inch TV’s) and better pricing. But, how to make a purchase and get that large TV in its huge box back to the apartment? One of the major challenges is that we don’t yet speak Spanish. We’ve enrolled in a Spanish school, with the promise from the instructor to become “functional.” It was doubtful purchasing a 65-inch TV from PriceSmart was going to make the first lesson.
The other major challenge is that we don’t have transportation, other than our own two feet. We plan on buying a car when we move to our house, and walking or taking Uber or Taxi, until then.
We tried to prepare for the purchase by looking up key words and phrases using our newly installed Google Translate phone app and wrote them down on an index card. (Yes, very old school…)
- I want to buy – quiero comprar
- Can you deliver – puedes entregar
We walked to PriceSmart armed with our index card and settled on one of the TV’s. Unlike Costco in the US, there is no purchase tag for large/expensive items. We looked around for someone who might be able to help. The only guy we saw was the person at the phone kiosk, who was busy with two customers. So, we went to Customer Service and started out the conversation the same way we start out every conversation with people who are trying to help us and properly set expectations … “Lo siento, no hablo español.” (I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish.)
The service counter guy kind of shrugged and responded with “no Inglés”. OK, not off to a good start. Still, we persisted. “Quiero comprar TV.” He pointed over to the TV area in the store. Now what? We knew where the TV area was in the store, and which TV we wanted, just not how to actually buy it. It was too big for us to drag up to the check-out area.
Thankfully, at this point the service counter guy brought up a translation site on his computer. This was helpful. With a couple of short typing exchanges, we somehow managed to communicate that we knew which TV we wanted to purchase.
At that point another PriceSmart guy in a red shirt walked up to the service counter. The service counter guy and red-shirt guy had a conversation that was clearly about us. While they were conversing, I noticed that there was a sign above the service counter with the words “Entregas a domicilio PriceSmart”. “Entregas” sure looked like a verb conjugation of “entregar”, “to deliver” that we had jotted down on the index card. And, “domicile” sure was like “domestic” or “home” in English. A ha! Seemed like we were in luck on the delivery!
So I asked, “¿puedes entregar?”
Service desk guy seemed uncertain and turned to red-shirt guy. He gave a brief nod, and quoted a price in colones, the Costa Rican currency. Our turn to nod in agreement. Of course we’d expected to pay for delivery, and this was going to save us from figuring out another way to transport it home, which probably would have been Uber XL .
Now red-shirt guy took over. He pointed to the TV area, and the three of us walked over the TV we had selected. There were several in boxes under the display model. Red-shirt guy walked over to the cell-phone kiosk guy and talked to him briefly, then returned. Then red-shirt guy talked to another guy, who brought in yet another guy with a black PriceSmart vest. Red-shirt guy pointed to black-vest guy and said, “English.”
I asked, “can we schedule a delivery?”
Black vest guy answered, “we don’t deliver.”
We looked at red-shirt guy. Red-shirt guy and black-vest guy had a conversation. Black vest guy said, “we can deliver.”
At this point we needed to pay for the TV and delivery. The now four of us (Red-shirt guy, black-vest guy, John and I) walked up to the check-out station. The woman at the check-out asked something about tickets. We had no idea what this meant. (They still ask us this question at the PriceSmart check-out no matter what we are purchasing, and we have been unable to confirm what is being asked.)
Red-shirt guy wandered down a hall and brought back a woman in a blue shirt. Blue-shirt woman also seemed to know some English. She asked for our telephone number. John provided it and she entered it into the cell phone she was carrying with her, and then walked away.
We paid for the TV and delivery charge. Black vest guy said, “we need to check out the TV.” So, the four of us went back to the TV area with the TV. Near the cell phone kiosk, red-shirt guy and black-vest guy opened the TV box and pulled out the packaging. John started to help. Another guy in a blue vest came up and also started to help.
The “checking” process was a bit worrisome. First one of the legs fell out of the packaging and went crashing onto the floor. This was quickly followed by the remote. We were hoping the TV was going to survive the “quality” check. Eventually the TV and all parts were completely pulled out of the box. They plugged in the TV and when the logo appeared, they declared it “checked.” It was a bit less of a struggle to get it back into the box.
Blue-vest guy brought out a clipboard. Black-vest guy asked if delivery in the next day or so would be OK.
“Sí,” we responded.
There was more conversation over the clipboard, and then he asked, “Today?”
Wow, that was even better! “Sí.”
“2:30?” the black-vest guy asked.
We looked at our watches. It was 2:00! We were going to make a few other purchases and still had to get home. “Can you do it a little later, maybe 3:00?”
More conversation. That appeared to be OK with everyone involved.
We rushed to make a few small purchases and called for an Uber, so we could make it back in time for the delivery.
When we made it back to our apartment complex, we attempted to communicate with the lady at the front desk that we had a delivery coming. “PriceSmart entrega TV hoy.” She seemed to understand, even though I was sure that entrega wasn’t the correct conjugation.
Back at the apartment, 3:00 p.m. came and went. Doubts started to cross our mind. Had we navigated all of it successfully? It was beginning to seem unlikely. Then, at 3:30 there was a strong knock on the door. We opened it to find only one guy standing there with the TV. He quickly brought it into the apartment and left as we said, “muchas gracias.”
We examined the box. It had a new gash in it that hadn’t been there during the inspection. We unpackaged the TV, set it up, and were relieved to find that it could show the logo.
Somehow we’d managed to purchase a TV and have it delivered within a few hours – remember, it’s an adventure!
Remember, it's an adventure. 