????8月30日，阿根廷一位名叫豪爾赫?卡斯蒂略的企業(yè)家將在靠近西部酒都門(mén)多薩的地方推介一個(gè)新的大型購(gòu)物商場(chǎng)。到10月份開(kāi)業(yè)時(shí)，它將容納約600個(gè)攤位，其中大多數(shù)攤位將租給小型家庭式成衣作坊。這正是試圖創(chuàng)造就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)和推動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的政客和商人們所推崇的做法。

????但在卡斯蒂略這里，一切都不同尋常。這個(gè)圓胖的男人有著一副能劃傷玻璃的尖利嗓子，他偏愛(ài)Members Only風(fēng)格的夾克衫，和已故作家埃爾莫爾?倫納德筆下構(gòu)想的一位卡車(chē)司機(jī)工會(huì)官員（出自小說(shuō)《Unknown Man #89》——譯注）頗為相似。

????當(dāng)他在當(dāng)?shù)亻T(mén)多薩上電視時(shí)，當(dāng)?shù)厣虝?huì)的負(fù)責(zé)人指責(zé)他偷稅漏稅，還參與不正當(dāng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。警方也屢次突擊搜查他在布宜諾斯艾利斯的購(gòu)物商場(chǎng)，沒(méi)收盜版CD和DVD。此外，美國(guó)貿(mào)易代表辦公室（U.S. Trade Representative，簡(jiǎn)稱USTR）也已經(jīng)“褒獎(jiǎng)”了那個(gè)名叫La Salada的商場(chǎng)，把它列入了“惡名市場(chǎng)名單”（Notorious Markets List）。

????若不是卡斯蒂略已經(jīng)瞄準(zhǔn)邁阿密作為他的下一站，他的故事很可能也就只是當(dāng)?shù)匦侣劧蚜?。La Salada既是阿根廷各種問(wèn)題的縮影，也彰顯了化腐朽為神奇的妙招。它座落在一個(gè)破舊的街坊，旁邊是一條被工業(yè)污染的臭水河。商場(chǎng)里到處是假冒產(chǎn)品，幾乎沒(méi)有商戶交稅，而且它跟《瘋狂的麥克斯》(Mad Max)系列電影一樣，十分混亂。

????同時(shí)，它創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)扁平化且直接面向消費(fèi)者的模式，提供了亟需的就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，是讓經(jīng)濟(jì)免于崩盤(pán)的一個(gè)成功的臨時(shí)解決方案。而且，它可能恰恰為打造實(shí)體版的亞馬遜（Amazon）提供了思路。此外，在像中國(guó)這樣的發(fā)展中國(guó)家，隨著中產(chǎn)階級(jí)群體的壯大，它讓我們得以一瞥品牌的未來(lái)。

????不過(guò)，我們先來(lái)了解一些歷史：在洛馬斯?德薩莫拉鎮(zhèn)上，里亞丘埃洛河把布宜諾斯艾利斯和它南邊的郊區(qū)隔開(kāi)。那里曾經(jīng)是一片天然熱海水游泳池，當(dāng)?shù)厝艘苍ツ抢锶∷?。后?lái)，里亞丘埃洛河逐漸受到上游工廠的徑流污染；浴池里充斥著有毒泥狀物質(zhì)；人們開(kāi)始對(duì)它敬而遠(yuǎn)之。

????接下來(lái)讓我們快進(jìn)到20世紀(jì)90年代，也就是卡洛斯?梅內(nèi)姆總統(tǒng)的鍍金時(shí)代。在梅內(nèi)姆廢除貿(mào)易壁壘，把比索兌美元的匯率一比一固定之后，當(dāng)?shù)厣a(chǎn)商頓時(shí)失去了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。隨著產(chǎn)業(yè)倒閉，當(dāng)?shù)嘏l(fā)商和零售商付給紡織品裁縫們（通常是玻利維亞移民）的錢(qián)越來(lái)越少，而且遲遲不付。因此，在La Salada水池旁邊的市場(chǎng)上，生產(chǎn)商開(kāi)始直接向消費(fèi)者出售他們的成衣。

????“我以前是做鞋子的，”56歲的卡斯蒂略說(shuō)，他目前是Punto Mogote倉(cāng)庫(kù)的管理股東，這個(gè)倉(cāng)庫(kù)是組成La Salada的三大倉(cāng)庫(kù)之一。“我以前把鞋子賣(mài)給鞋店，鞋店賣(mài)給客戶。我收到貨款的時(shí)間沒(méi)有定數(shù)，30天、60天、90天、120天或150天，都有可能?！?

????On August 30, an Argentine entrepreneur named Jorge Castillo will present a huge new mall near the western wine capital of Mendoza. When it opens in October, it will house some 600 stalls, most of which will be rented by small and home-based clothing workshops. It's just the kind of enterprise that's typically celebrated by politicians and businesspeople for creating jobs and boosting the economy.

????But with Castillo, nothing is normal. A rotund man with a voice that can scratch glass and a propensity for Members Only-style jackets, he resembles a Teamsters official as imagined by the late Elmore Leonard.

????When he went on local Mendoza TV, the head of the local chamber of commerce accused him of evading taxes and engaging in unfair competition. Police have repeatedly raided his mall in Buenos Aires to confiscate counterfeit CDs and DVDs. And the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has paid that mall -- named La Salada -- the dubious compliment of putting it on its Notorious Markets List.

????This would be local news save for one thing: Castillo has set his sights on Miami for his next site.

????La Salada epitomizes both Argentina's problems and its improvisational genius. It sits in a run-down neighborhood bordering a river fetid with industrial pollution. It's full of rip-offs. Few of its vendors pay taxes. And it's as chaotic as a Mad Max sequel.

????At the same time, it is a successful ad-hoc solution to an economic collapse, a flat, direct-to-consumer model that provides desperately needed jobs, and it might just show the way to a brick-and-mortar version of Amazon. Moreover, as a middle class rises in developing countries like China, it offers a glimpse into the future of brands.

????But first, a bit of history: In the town of Lomas de Zamora, alongside the Riachuelo river that divides Buenos Aires from its southern suburbs, there once were a series of natural thermal salt-water pools where locals went to "take the waters." Over time, the Riachuelo grew polluted with runoffs from the factories upstream; the baths filled with toxic gunk; and people stopped going.

????Fast-forward to the 1990s gilded age of President Carlos Menem. After Menem dropped trade barriers and pegged the peso one-to-one to the dollar, local manufacturers could not compete. With the industry in tatters, local wholesalers and retailers paid textile sewers -- often Bolivian immigrants -- little and late, so the manufacturers began selling their clothing direct to consumers in markets near the pools of La Salada.

????"I used to make shoes," says Castillo, 56, who is the managing shareholder at Punto Mogote, one of the three gigantic warehouses that make up La Salada. "I sold them to shoe stores, and the shoe stores sold them. I got paid whenever, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, 150 days."??