Travelers who have been to the Dominican Republic before will almost certainly have seen the ubiquitous ‘colmados’ on every second street corner. For those who have not, the colmado is not just a corner grocery stores which sells everything from plantains to toilet paper, it also a bar, a convenient place next door where you can buy 2 plantains, 3 ounces of sugar, a roll of toilet paper and a single cigarette. Most importantly, the colmado is a Dominican institution which the local population relies on, both commercially and culturally.
Picture the following typical scenario … you have returned from the supermarket and are about to cook lunch (the main meal in the DR is lunch, not dinner) when you realize you are out of Doña Gallina (the most famous chicken broth cubes which are used to add flavor to just about anything). You give your little daughter a few pesos and send her to the colmado next door for a single cube. Or you realize you are running out of drinking water (tap water is not palatable here even for the hardiest financially unfortunate), so you call the colmado to have one of their delivery boys bring a 5 gallon plastic bottle, which he exchanges for your empty. When he arrives at the apartment building, he yells ‘COLMADO’ down below, so that you let him in. This familiar call can be heard anywhere in any residential area just about all the time! And as long as he has come up with the water bottle, you ask him to bring up a couple of plantains that you had forgotten to ask for. And so it goes …
The arrival of modern supemarkets quite a few years ago was feared to be the beginning of the demise of the colmado, but fortunately this has not happened … quite the opposite, it seems there are more and more in every neighborhood. If you calculate the per ounce cost of the 3 ounces of sugar you have just bought, it is at least double what you would pay in the supermarket, but the convenience is clearly worth it. The other less agreeable reason for their continued success is that the less financially blessed don’t have the money for that 5 pound bag of sugar when the neighbor comes by for a cup of coffee.
In the late afternoon the music is turned up, usually bachata, salsa or dembow (the latest thumping iteration of urban music, often featuring obscene lyrics everyone laughs at), and the customers begin arriving to hang out and socialize with their friends, and of course for a few ice cold beers or a shared bottle of rum. The plastic chairs which have been stacked 20 high next to the entrance come out, and patrons, mostly male, settle in on the sidewalk for an evening of dominoes and to enjoy a drink or two. The refrigerators are supplied by the Presidente beer company at no cost to the colmado owner, and the beer is guaranteed to be no more than one degree above freezing .. boldly certified by the green digitel displays showing the current temperature inside the fridge, so that everyone knows the beer they have ordered is just right, requiring a few quick adept tipovers before the cap cmes off in order not to instantly freeze when opened. And so it goes, night after night. A good time was had by all!