Alice, Avon Consultant, São Remo, São Paulo

Posted 21 March 2008 in Brazil - São Paulo Community service Family dependent Informal trading

Alice sells Avon from the front room of her home where she lives with three generations of her family. She’s built her customer base from the community – everybody knows she’s the woman to go to for make-up. She no longer has to visit her clients’ homes, they come to her and order from the catalogue. She doesn’t have the products in stock and puts in monthly orders to her regional supplier. She also has a sideline in small fashion items such as flip flops.

What interested us about Alice was her very local expression of a global brand. We photographed her clients outside her home, one of whom, her neighbour, Nilda, held a beautiful little dog called Totti,  like the Italian footballer but pronounced Tor_che. It is one of the many pedigree ‘toy’ dogs owned in São Remo and interesting to see that show dogs are not the exclusive preserve of more affluent communities.