Gringo Gazette

Costco opened its first gas station in the state of Guanajuato this week, its fourth in Mexico. The spiffy new station cost $3.3 million. They’re selling Costco’s Kirkland Signature gasoline brand, and sure it comes from the States, but so does most gas. Mexico has very little refining capabilities. Maybe that goes a long way toward explaining the cost of a gallon of gas costing about $3.65 a gallon.

The company assured customers that they will get what they pay for and won’t be short-poured here. Yes, he actually said that, acknowledging the elephant in the room where gas is sold. They will only accept credit or debit cards and members who use their Costco credit card get a 3% discount.

Meanwhile, The British oil and gas company BP continues its expansion into Mexico by opening its first ToGo convenience store in this country, where it also introduced its Wild Bean Café to customers. This station is in Guadalajara. The new store and its coffee is part of a strategy to transform the concept of service stations in Mexico, now that stations other than Pemex are allowed. BP operates the Wild Bean Café brand in 1,200 convenience stores in 11 countries. In Mexico, the company has more than 350 gas stations. And looking at the overall picture, it does appear that BP’s convenience store is a lot nicer than the OXXO’s.

Meanwhile, stodgy old Pemex appears to be running scared, as the government-owned oil company is sporting a new look. The new gas station design was officially inaugurated last week in the state of México. Poo. Always at the end of the line, Baja doesn’t get anything cool.

The head of the company’s industrial transformation division said the new design will be incorporated at 45 stations this year, eight new ones and 37 boring old stations will be renovated. Carlos Murrieta Cummings said the new concept “is intended to maintain the franchise’s leadership in the domestic market.” See? They just admitted they’re running scared.  “The new image breaks with the conventional and projects a new Pemex: a highly competitive business in an open market,” he said in the announcement.

Murrieta added that the new design reflects an eagle in flight, “a leader, strong and agile, with its wings extended towards new challenges.” Murrieta also said the company’s objective is to provide the highest standards of customer service, offering its clients experience, reliability, modernity and innovation. Ha ha ha! Since when? Since President Pena Nieto broke Pemex’s stranglehold on the gas monopoly and invited in competition! Since then they’re trying a tiny bit harder. They’re still short-pouring and short-changing, and they’re still losing buckets of money.

Well, the general manager of the first Pemex franchise to sport the new look did say its sales have doubled since the new design was incorporated in mid-June. With prices fixed, maybe appearances and service do count.

Mexico is touted as a great place to get dentistry done, and most of that touting is from the industry itself. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a great savings or it’s not safe, it just means slow down and do your due diligence. Find out who you’re going to trust your health to. Make no mistake, just because your mouth is kind of on the edge of your health, it is still your health. We know a woman who got a tooth so badly infected the pain went into her neck and shoulder and she went to a chiropractor, not even realizing the pain started in her mouth. It took her almost a year to find a doctor who figured out it was coming from an infection in a tooth she had had work done on in a Mexican border town.

The cost here is a fraction of what it is in the States, and you need to ask yourself why? OK, so we’re asking: Why? Because these dentists don’t carry insurance. Fine, if nothing goes wrong.

Another reason for cheap dentistry is they pay such low wages. As a friend and business owner told me when I complained about his lousy service, “Sorry about that but I pay peanuts, so I get monkeys.” Do you want someone making way less than $1000 a month drilling holes in your gums? Fine, that’s understandable. Dentistry is costly, we get that.

Reason three that dentistry is cheaper here is that most Mexicans can’t afford to pay even the price you think is so cheap. Therefore, dentists are hungry for business from foreigners. The price you’re chortling over is a godsend to them.

Do they have the same training as US dentists? No.

There were 83 dental schools registered in the last official national count in 2007. Half are public, half are private. Admission to dental schools in Mexico requires a high school diploma, and to obtain a license in Mexico, dental students must complete a 3 to 5 year program plus a year of community service. But this  is scary: No formal nationwide standard curriculum exists, so who knows if your dentist went to a Mickey Mouse stay and vay or to a tough school where they had to learn their craft? And did you just notice we said that dentists here have four fewer years of school than US dentists? Of course a case can be made that those four years our dentists spend in college before they get to dental school are wasted since they never see a tooth.

There are 195,000 dentists in the US, and 153,000 dentists in Mexico. There are 312 million Americans and 129 million Mexicans. Clearly there are too many dentists here, especially considering how many of the very poor people never open wide for a dentist.

So, why are so many Mexican dentists trained in the United States? Look closer to that diploma on the wall they’re so proud of, especially if it says graduated from a US school. Most of them are a course lasting a week or two on a specialty. No doubt the dentist wants to improve his craft, but being able to say he’s US trained makes that couple weeks a very good investment.

And who over sees dentists in Mexico? Nobody. In the US, a dentist must pass three tests in the state he/she intends to practice in and show a hepatitis B test, finger prints, a course in infection control, and oh yes, “be of good character” whatever that entails. And they belong to the American Dental Ass., a trade organization where you can start the process of complaint.

Good luck suing a Mexican dentist if something goes wrong. There is no tort law in this country. (Tort law provides relief to injured parties for harms caused by others, and to impose liability on parties responsible for the harm).

All of this sounds negative and is not meant to be, it’s just a counter point to the one big, huge, and very good reason to get dentistry done here: Price. You can save a bundle.