Why . . . Are There No Push Brooms?

That's an interesting observation, I really didn't  consciously notice that, but you seem to be right for the most part.There is a broom that sort of looks like a push broom but not with the same angle. It can be used in a push manner. I bought several brooms for the housekeeper to use and she seems to avoid that broom. I don't think habits change that easily. Vacuums are not used that often either, I think they are quite handy, but the housekeep doesn't touch the one I bought. Walmart and home depot advertise push brooms so perhaps you could find them there, but would the locals use them ?

When my housecleaner comes over she will go to my landlady and borrow her "round" bucket rather than use my "square" one.

You can't scrub the floor with a push broom.

True, but you have to sweep up , before you mop.

Another curious question is why do local stores let stock sell out completely before considering replacement ? and why will they leave an empty box on display when they are down to one sample item, and refuse to sell the last one on display. If its all sold out, its obvious people are buying the item, so why leave an empty box and the display item ?

I managed to talk a sales person into selling the last grinder at the Liverpool store, but he had to think about it and consult with someone else first. I couldn't get the clerk at the mega to sell the tower fan I wanted though. He was adamant about the need of having the last one stay on display. Whats that about ?

Why aren't there any push brooms?

It's two little things called Latin-American culture and Latin-American history. The absence of push brooms and absolute trauma of square buckets in common to all Lat-Am countries.

Since discovery and since slaves were brought to the americas they used traditional brooms because the raw materials were so abundant and they were easy to fabricate. Also, traditional brooms use much less wood. In some countries wood is in short supply in others subject to termite damage.

Why would they go to all the trouble of drilling hundreds of holes in a block of wood, threading horse hair or straw through them, trying to secure them in place when it's far easier to bend a handful of straw in half around a stick, wrap it with wire and voila you've got a broom, something that initially everyone actually made for themselves at home. While the "habit" of making their own brooms may have died, the tradition of using them exclusively probably never will in Latin America.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

Oh yeah, almost forgot.....   it's a lot easier to smack a cockroach and kill it with a traditional broom than with a push broom!

travellight wrote:

True, but you have to sweep up , before you mop.

Yes, the mop. I have one, but the cleaning-lady doesn't use it. She uses the broom to scrub and then a squeegee and wraps a towel around it to "mop" up the water. I gave up trying to understand this reasoning. When she comes over, I take my laptop and go to my neighbor's apartment and return when she's done.

travellight wrote:

That's an interesting observation, I really didn't  consciously notice that, but you seem to be right for the most part.There is a broom that sort of looks like a push broom but not with the same angle. It can be used in a push manner. I bought several brooms for the housekeeper to use and she seems to avoid that broom. I don't think habits change that easily. Vacuums are not used that often either, I think they are quite handy, but the housekeep doesn't touch the one I bought. Walmart and home depot advertise push brooms so perhaps you could find them there, but would the locals use them ?

The nylon brooms that they use as a push broom but do not have the angle and gets all the bristles distorted fast and doesnŽt last long and is hard to keep trash from sticking to them and basically do a lousy job of cleaning the outside on cement after a short while. Not only that they do a large área with these 8 inch brooms and it takes forever. On the good side they are cheap to buy and nobody would bother stealing one where an expensive 24 inch push broom they might.