I’ve always found going to the cobbler to be a rewarding experience. There’s something innately wholesome about the way that you can take something loved but broken and have it infused with new life for a fraction of what it would cost to replace it. I know the landfills are not overflowing with fixable shoes (actually, I’m told they’re overflowing with disposable diapers) but still, sometimes it’s nice to repair rather than replace.
Of course, there are bad apples among cobblers as well. Just before leaving for Bolivia, I tried to get my shoes repaired in Ottawa – there was an identical tear in the leather in each shoe. It cost me $20, and one of the repairs promptly gave way. Honestly, it was almost enough to turn me off the entire cobbling industry.
Happily however, Bolivia is providing the antidote. As I write this, I’m having that same shoe repaired by a very friendly man working with a full kit of equipment under a tarp in the market down the road. The total cost will be 5 Bolivianos, which works out to about 70 cents, and the shoe ready in less than half a day. That is a very good deal.
Interestingly, it is also a window into an unexpected moral dilemma. There is a tailor just down the way from the cobbler, and at the same time we took my shoe in to get repaired, we dropped off a sweater with a couple of holes in it for repair. The tailor quoted us a price of 15 Bolivianos, or roughly $2, and it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow at the earliest. Now here’s the thing: it is quite possible that the tailor is charging us an inflated price. As in many countries, there is often a surcharge in Bolivia for naive foreigners which can range from 20-100% of the market rate. It never feels good to get ripped off, and it gets annoying when it happens regularly – even if the amounts themselves are trivial. After all, one need only visit a garage sale to see how hard some people will bargain to save a quarter. Sooner or later, you’re going to tire of losing that quarter.
So what should one be more concerned with? Getting fleeced in Bolivian terms by the tailor even though the amount is negligible, or paying market price to the cobbler even though it is absurdly low in North American terms? Or perhaps I’m over-thinking this….
