The Company Store is alive and well in Mexico.

[Lionel Mandrake]

A story in the LA Times reminded me of a song:

The story is part 3 of a 4 part series. I posted parts 1 and 2 earlier. The story begins as follows:

Company stores trap Mexican farmworkers in a cycle of debt

By RICHARD MAROSI
Photography by DON BARTLETTI
DEC. 12, 2014

The mom-and-pop monopolies sell to a captive clientele, post no prices and track purchases in dog-eared ledgers. At the end of the harvest, many workers head home owing money.

Third of four stories

REPORTING FROM CAMPO ISABELES, MEXICO

The farmworkers lined up right after work, clutching crumpled pesos. The shelves before them were stacked high with staples: corn flour and beans, diapers and Mexican sweet bread.

Most weren't buying, however.

Dionisia Bustamante handed 1,000 pesos, about $70, to Israel Gastelum, owner of the company store at Campo Isabeles. She was short 2,000, but it was the best she could do. “We’re running out of vegetables to pick,” she explained.

A wiry man held out 400 pesos. "You still owe 500," Gastelum said. "How am I going to pay?" the laborer asked. "We're not earning enough."

Other field hands at Campo Isabeles, part of a farm complex near Culiacan in the state of Sinaloa, stayed away from the store so as not to add to their debts. Catarino Martinez said he had gone without eating that day. Esteban Rodriguez said the storekeeper had threatened to call the police if he didn't pay the 2,000 pesos he owed. Pedro Castillo feared something worse. "The owners said they will take my son or my daughter if I don't pay my bill," he said.

Read more:

http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-stores/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I think the company stores have it too good.

Time for them to make conditions better for the workers. How about posting the prices, for a start? And charge the same prices for everyone?

That would help.

[Lionel Mandrake]

2. Yes, thet would help.

It would also help if the Mexican government would enforce existing labor laws, including the law that workers must be paid weekly, not at the end of the season.

[Lionel Mandrake]

3. Where are all the people who expressed interest in parts 2, 3, and 4

when I posted part 1 of this series?

Your silence is deafening.

[cbayer]

4. I missed this completely and I was even looking for it.

I think we should try and keep them kicked for a few days. I would be willing to help.

[Lionel Mandrake]

5. That's how it is in GD these days.

It only takes an hour or two for a thread to sink down to page 2.

Thanks for your kind offer to help keep these threads alive.

[a la izquierda]

6. This is part of what launched the Revolution in 1910.

Might be the subject of my next book, we'll see how Mexico turns.