DISCLAIMER:

This website, and a dozen others relating to Cartagena, Colombia, is owned and maintained by non - profit (w.r.,inc.) a Florida based corporation. Our websites provide client and community promotional results which serve as low cost and easy to implement examples of how to use: “the power of the Internet”. Our teaching efforts are slowly rewarded, in time and with much patience, through greater acceptance and use of the Internet by the local business community.

The Internet is our sole promotion media. For most businesses, no other communications tool can provide proof of results at a better price/performance ratio. Promoting on the Internet is going direct with your message and: “opening your doors to the world”. Living and working within one of the greatest examples of a 500 year old Colonial Walled City, offers a challenge in tearing down “mental” walls so fresh breezes and the warmth of the Caribbean sun can pour in-for all in the world, to enjoy.

Poor economies function in conflict with the openness of the Internet. It’s natural for the poor to guard and treat information as “secrets”, that could offer future financial reward. We say: “knowledge is power”, where the poor, “cut to the quick” and believe that knowledge can mean: $$$$$. This can be readily seen by understanding our friends at the lower end of the economy, the street vendors. With them, even the price of what they are selling is kept a secret because: 1. A vendor many only sell one product, but each sale stands on its own. Some buyers will pay more and some less, and without fixed prices there is always the opportunity to squeeze more profit out of each sale. 2. Vendors are friends with other vendors. Openly posting prices would quickly turn friends into enemies by reducing the chances of their competitors to squeeze out more profit. Vendors who posted prices would find themselves, and their families, under intense pressure and if they persisted, soon would be treated as social outcasts. When you are poor, your “image” within your social/economic group is everything!

This “keep things a secret and get all you can” philosophy is practiced by those who pay taxes and operate in permanent business locations as well. If you visit a store and the owner does not have what you are looking for an employee quickly runs off on foot, on a bicycle, a motor bike, or a taxi, to buy what you need. You may pay a bit more for this “service” , but usually the wait is only 5 minutes or less. If you ask for the name and location of the supplier, the owner’s oblique response may be: “don’t worry he will be back in a minute”. You will never know-back from where, because that’s a business secret. It’s financially impossible to keep a broad inventory of anything, when there is little money.  Here’s a
shoe store example: you find just the right brand and style, but the color or size is not right! The clerk goes back to the store room to find what you want. Un-noticed, another employee comes out from the store room and runs down the street to a competitive shoe store. The runner slips back, and your smiling sales clerk returns from the store room and happily presents you with just what you want. This inventory sharing can be repeated a half dozen times for one customer. The final price is the same you were quoted as if they had the item in inventory!
THE GUIDE TO CARTAGENA: Street map, Holidays Calender, Yellow Pages, Email Directory, Weather, Airline arrival, Taxi/prices, Car rental,
Chauffeured RR, Hotels, Restaurants, Jewelry, Travel Agencies, Weddings and Honeymoons, Retiring . . . and lots more!!!