????8月30日，阿根廷一位名叫豪爾赫?卡斯蒂略的企業家將在靠近西部酒都門多薩的地方推介一個新的大型購物商場。到10月份開業時，它將容納約600個攤位，其中大多數攤位將租給小型家庭式成衣作坊。這正是試圖創造就業機會和推動經濟發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。這個圓胖的男人有著一副能劃傷玻璃的尖利嗓子，他偏愛Members Only風格的夾克衫，和已故作家埃爾莫爾?倫納德筆下構想的一位卡車司機工會官員（出自小說《Unknown Man #89》——譯注）頗為相似。

????當他在當地門多薩上電視時，當地商會的負責人指責他偷稅漏稅，還參與不正當競爭。警方也屢次突擊搜查他在布宜諾斯艾利斯的購物商場，沒收盜版CD和DVD。此外，美國貿易代表辦公室（U.S. Trade Representative，簡稱USTR）也已經“褒獎”了那個名叫La Salada的商場，把它列入了“惡名市場名單”（Notorious Markets List）。

????若不是卡斯蒂略已經瞄準邁阿密作為他的下一站，他的故事很可能也就只是當地新聞而已了。La Salada既是阿根廷各種問題的縮影，也彰顯了化腐朽為神奇的妙招。它座落在一個破舊的街坊，旁邊是一條被工業污染的臭水河。商場里到處是假冒產品，幾乎沒有商戶交稅，而且它跟《瘋狂的麥克斯》(Mad Max)系列電影一樣，十分混亂。

????同時，它創造了一個扁平化且直接面向消費者的模式，提供了亟需的就業機會，是讓經濟免于崩盤的一個成功的臨時解決方案。而且，它可能恰恰為打造實體版的亞馬遜（Amazon）提供了思路。此外，在像中國這樣的發展中國家，隨著中產階級群體的壯大，它讓我們得以一瞥品牌的未來。

????不過，我們先來了解一些歷史：在洛馬斯?德薩莫拉鎮上，里亞丘埃洛河把布宜諾斯艾利斯和它南邊的郊區隔開。那里曾經是一片天然熱海水游泳池，當地人也曾去那里取水。后來，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；人們開始對它敬而遠之。

????接下來讓我們快進到20世紀90年代，也就是卡洛斯?梅內姆總統的鍍金時代。在梅內姆廢除貿易壁壘，把比索兌美元的匯率一比一固定之后，當地生產商頓時失去了競爭力。隨著產業倒閉，當地批發商和零售商付給紡織品裁縫們（通常是玻利維亞移民）的錢越來越少，而且遲遲不付。因此，在La Salada水池旁邊的市場上，生產商開始直接向消費者出售他們的成衣。

????“我以前是做鞋子的，”56歲的卡斯蒂略說，他目前是Punto Mogote倉庫的管理股東，這個倉庫是組成La Salada的三大倉庫之一。“我以前把鞋子賣給鞋店，鞋店賣給客戶。我收到貨款的時間沒有定數，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."??