Luis Moya de Zacatecas – Mexican Style Outlet Shopping
On my travels this past week we stopped to visit some friends and family in the tiny town of Luis Moya de Zacatecas. (See the map below.) Coming from Cuernavaca, where everyone boasts about the tranquility, I quickly realized that it’s always important to have a little perspective. Flat, quiet and with a catchy and quickly acquired northern accent, I thoroughly enjoyed a quick visit to this truly Mexican town.
Please wait while the map of Luis de Moya de Zacatecas is loading.
Luis Moya de Zacatecas is a small place, the true definition of a pueblo, smack dab in the middle between the two cities of Zacatecas and León. (Click here for the government’s overview and summary of the municipio, in Spanish)
The town is famous, mostly with Mexicans, for being a hot spot for clothes – cheap clothes – in bulk and in abundance. On the weekends the streets fill up with out-of-towners looking for a bargain and shop owners arriving from near and far – hoping to get a good deal. Still unbelieving, we were reassured multiple times that clothing IS the industry/business/reason-for-being in LMZ. Major textile and apparel manufacturers ring the area and much of these clothes are destined for export.
So this is not your phony gringo-style “outlet” with minor discounts on stock-overuns – but rather “direct from the manufacturer” the way outlets were supposed to be with the minor and some major defects, the truly curious, some outrageous and some true bargains all mixed together in one place – a paradise for bin-divers. Besides this considerable fact, the town is worth mentioning for a few other strange but interesting facts.
Number 1: There’s no public market! Not only is there no market, the tienditas and abarrotes are next to nil, and don’t even think of asking where the market is. Fresh produce can still be found, if you’re willing to walk halfway around town (don’t worry, the whole four blocks won’t kill you). A few small shops on the edge of this outlet and commercial center will sell you whatever you need – though not in enormous quantity. You can buy 10 kilos of t-shirts, but only one kilo of tomatoes!
Number 2: The stores are hip. For a tiny town of 8,004, Luis Moya doesn’t sport the run down closets you find in Cuernavaca. In keeping with its reputation, the clothing stores are BIG, with variety and colors, offering the latest styles and every possible size. And they’re competitive – more than one store looks like it was transplanted from New York’s 5th Avenue and dropped into these dusty Mexican streets: big glass windows, with a trendy café to pause and take a break from shopping.
"it’s just not the same as bacon and sausage…" Breakfast in Luis Moya de Zacatecas is a tasty adventure.
Number 3: Bírria. For those of you that like barbacoa, this is a similar dish only turned into a soup: tender sheep or goat meat, furthered softened by a tomato-chile broth and seasoned with onion, lime and cilantro. Birria is a morning meal, even though as a foreigner it’s tough to stomach the idea (literally) of eating goat for breakfast – it’s just not the same as bacon and sausage… And, true to good travel advice, it’s easy to spot which mobile truck stand is the best – the one that is jam-packed with sleepy people slurping birria!
It’s hard not to enjoy the simple charm of this quiet town that is really just a pit stop along the way to the bigger and better known places along the way. Luis Moya de Zacatecas is a good reminder that sometimes you do need to steer off the map.
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