Friday, December 6, 2019

PLASMA BUSINESS BOOMING IN DOWNTOWN BROWNTOWN...

(Ed.'s Note: There are no large manufacturing plants, no large retail business enterprises, no grocery store, or even a McDonalds in the city's core. But there are three large plasma donor center which is doing land-office business sucking up the blood from plasma donors like these two cashing in the debit cards the firms use as payment to sellers of their blood.

Aside from the second-hand stores, dollar stores, and finance companies, there is scant business brewing in the heart of the city.

Al day long the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of the brown arm band roam the city looking for items to the back to their homes in Matamoros. Once in the pipeline, they can earn almost as much as a worker does in the maquilas across the river in a week (about $70) without having to pay the sindicato union bosses their cut or pay impuestos on their profit.

The plasma companies sell the precious liquid dearly to hospitals and the medical industry across the United States. Each liter of plasma can be worth as much as $200 before the manufacturing process and as much as $500 after, analysts say. Ever price of a plasma transfusion on an itemized hospital statement?

With the closing of the HEB (which required a $5 purchase to cash their debit cards), donors can cash in their debits at the ATM at the corner of 14th and Washington streets, conveniently located one block from the Gateway Bridge for only a $2 charge instead of HEB's $5 purchase.)


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hard to say what your beef with this enterprise is, Montoya. These people provide a product and they get paid for it. You stay on this story like a drugged-fly over a bowl of day-old guacamole, bro. Let it go. No one else gives a fuck.

Anonymous said...

Blame Ben Neece! He's the Mayor of Downtown Brownsville! LOL

Anonymous said...

How it ends: Trump will have himself driven to the Russian Embassy instead of jumping off a Trump Tower.

Anonymous said...

Those plasma centers are sure raking in millions. By 3am the plasma center in front of international bridge already has people lining up by that time. Its embarrassing how designed downtown has become for the poor. Anyone remember around the early 2000s how downtown was a bit vibrant with different businesses. All that shit is gone. Now its all chinos selling old shit, plasma centers, bares del mal vivir, fake hipster pizza shops, a ross, pay loan businesses.

Anonymous said...

L a cagas, Juan. La cagas.

Anonymous said...

American historians have been asked for so long, by so many people, so many times, in so many ways: Is President Trump really that bad? Is this unprecedented? Almost always, I bite my tongue. But, yes, he is that bad, and this is unprecedented, and these acts are impeachable, and, if it seems as though people have been clamoring for his impeachment since he took office, that’s only because he has behaved abominably since he took office. Is abomination impeachable? No. But the abuses of office of which the President now stands accused are the very definition of impeachable.

The madness lies in looking, honestly, at how this came to pass, at how many people had to give up on the idea of democracy for things to come to this. The sadness lies in the recognizing of the unlikelihood of anything getting much better anytime soon, what with the slush and the sleet and the coming storm. A farmer walks across a field, bracing against the wind. Hardness is what’s required to get through a political winter: determination, forbearance, sacrifice, not bitterness but a certain sternness.

Anonymous said...


Bless the donors for their efforts.

Anonymous said...

The plasma centers has brought jobs to the local area, that's not saying much for SpaceX!!!

Anonymous said...

This issue isn't about Trump.

Anonymous said...

Just imagine do the math on those rental apartment. Say an apartment complex (low housing) has 250 units for rent. They rent them for abt $550 or $650 a month for a one bedroom, they get 70% from the gov on each unit they rent to low housing people. At $650 times 250 units times 12 months how much is that? There is approx over 75 apt complexes here with over 225 units. Those places hire unqualified personnel so they get paid $7.25 and hour and their maintenance grew in those places are only two, and pub offer over a 70% allowance on those units. The question is where is ALL that money going? OUT OF TOWN THAT'S WHERE AND TO WHO?????

Juanito???? You have the whole year to figure that one, Happy 2020...

Anonymous said...

Juan,

Esta gente de Matamoros son víctima de el sistema capitalista de Brownsville. La ciudad de Brownsville según no quería tener compañías grandes en el centro, puro “small business.” Ahora por eso se les fue H-E-B pero dejaron a las compañías de Plasma. Mucha hipocresía. Averigua a quien le dieron mordía. Al manager de antes, al building director, a quien?

No dudes Juan que al rató, las compañías donadoras de plasma cierren por brotes de enfermedad en Mexico!

Anonymous said...

brotes de enfermedad en Mexico! Y se llama el cartel estupido

rita