December 08, 2003
Buying the Economist
I used to read a lot of magazines. I used to subscribe to magazines. I'd get three, four, five of them every week, and I would read them all, cover to cover.
Then I had children.
These days I only have time to read one magazine regularly, and it's the Economist. You can argue with my choice, but there it is.
The thing is, in the Balkans, buying the Economist is not always a simple matter of strolling down to the local newsstand. Ha ha, pas de tout.
In Belgrade, it was very much a game of chance. The Economist would arrive in the country sometime on Friday, usually. And there were five or six magazine vendors who might carry it. Or then again, maybe not. So every Friday evening I would trot around downtown Belgrade, going from one vendor to another. Sometimes it would be at the first or second one; sometimes I would visit all of them with no luck. Sometimes it wouldn't appear until Saturday or even Monday. Nobody could ever explain why.
In Bucharest, it's still a game of chance, but the rules are a little different. The
vendor in the Gara de Nord train station always has the Economist by Saturday morning. That's a little late (it's nice to get it fresh on Friday) but acceptable, so I usually go down to the station with Alan on Saturday. I buy my magazine, he waves at the trains, we're happy. The only issue is that it's sort of a long walk (~2 km) to the station.
But! The NIC supermarket, just a couple of hundred meters from our house, also carries the Economist. Sometimes. And once in a great while, they get it on Friday afternoon. Not usually, no -- usually it doesn't appear until Sunday or Monday, and sometimes it doesn't appear at all. But once in a while, it's there on Friday, half a day before the Gara de Nord. Why? No idea.
Pointless? Not if you're an Economist reader. I don't say it's the greatest news magazine in the world, but it is mildly addictive.
Oh, and: this week they came out with their annual "World Survey". That's a special double-sized issue that they produce every December, in addition to the usual weekly version. That means that, this week, I have nearly 300 pages of crunchy Economist goodness to read...
...when I find the time, of course.
Posted by douglas at December 8, 2003 12:39 PMYou could try a subscription... but I wont recomand it if it is supposed to be deliverd by Posta Romana. I used to work for an IT magazine and I remember we had lots of messages about missing magazines deliverd by Posta Romana.
On the other hand, when I used Posta Romana for sending simple mail it worked perfectly (cheap and super fast).
The newspapper stand in Carrefour might sell your magazine as well. They even have .net magazine from UK, which I couldn't find it anywhere else in Ro.
Have a nice day!
A&M
about trains schedule:
You can see the schedule for the train going to Belgrad here
Keep SHIFT key pressed in order to open it on a new window.
Here is the second page
This schedule is available until December, 13 2003.
Yes, the newspaper stand in Carrefour has the Economist. The only problem is, it's not very close to our house.
Also, I don't like going to Carrefour on Saturdays, when it seems like everyone in Bucharest goes there...
Thanks for the pages!
Doug M.