[QUOTE=Tempoecorto; 1250316]Jaosousa has a point."Some" would be a good qualifier but I am certain Frannie did not mean to badmouth the entire race of Dominican either. Speaking of brand loyalty, I do have to state that it is not only the DR folks that are guilty of it. I remember Italians asking me to buy boatloads of swatch watches (and Rayban glasses) when these were fashionable (perhaps they still are) not to speak of replica swiss watches, when I traveled to the Far East. The Chinese drink the XO almost like water with their "Kampai". No swirling the decanter lugubriously. Just a classic ostentatious display of conspicuous consumption! The fake Louis Vuitton bag is a classic in that you are almost expected to use a fake one.
In fact, being from the third world, I would almost defend the D. R folks' habit of brand loyalty. Often times, a multinational like Nestle' may guarantee a quality the local brands would not / cannot which in food may make some difference. Of course the fad element is ubiquitous. I have it at home too. Some years back, my 12 year old wanted an ipod." no. Thank you but an MP3 player just would not do" which I still think it essentially is.[/QUOTE]Yes, I made the mistake of assuming that on this board we are talking about the Dominicans you might expect to meet in a prostitution environment, but perhaps that is not obvious to all. My point was that the chicas will often request expensive brand-name products for reasons of status (or maybe they can resell the item more easily) without being aware that the item is really a commodity (like vodka, rum). This does not matter in the slightest EXCEPT THAT IT MAY COST THE MONGER UNNECESSARY MONEY. Get it? So as in the example above of the iPod, a generic mp3 player like a SansaClip+ would be a much more economical choice, do the same job of playing music, allow use of a memory chip, not require access to iTunes to load music. However if what the chica wants is not to be able to listen to portable music, but to impress her friends, or sell the device to someone else, then she is going to demand an iPod at great expense to you. THIS IS JUST A THEORETICAL EXAMPLE! In real life most chicas have smart phones that have music and video capacity. There are very few iPhones around, as they are just too expensive, but plenty of Nokias, Samsungs, and Blackberries.
