Continues from article Colombian town planning – 

One may hope that rental arrangement at shopping malls would work better. Because shopping malls are Bogotános’ second homes, only the crème de la crème gets to live in these spaces. However, walking into a shopping mall is yet again puzzling. The shop layout just seems to be in such a mess. The most expensive shops aren’t always on the ground floor, and vice versa for the lower market tier’s. So, you have to walk around the whole mall for whatever you need because the shop could be on the ground floor or the top floor, in the corner or the centre..

For example, Longchamp and Coach, the French and American accessories shops, are luxurious brands in Colombian terms because of the atrocious amount of sales and import taxes and all sorts of black money that is required to bring in the products. (This makes everything foreign 50% more expensive than local brands automatically. So yes, for the record I buy locally, making avocado salad rather than sweet and sour pork..) In one of the most prestigious and popular shopping malls, Andino, the two labels sit next to local leather and apparel brands that stock products that are 4 times cheaper.. Mont Blanc is next to L’Occitane.. It is just so typical of Colombia – there is no logic, it just is.