Boutique Hotel Shop & Artisan Associate

Responsibilities

• Welcome and assist hotel guests and walk-in visitors in boutique shop
• Sell Yucatecan artisan and regional products — hand-woven henequén bags and baskets, embroidered huipil blouses, guayabera shirts, Melipona honey, regional hammocks (Yucatán hammocks are among the finest in the world), local hot sauces and food products, Mayan jade-inspired jewelry
• Provide genuine Yucatecan provenance context — guests buying a hammock want to know it was woven in Tixkokob; guests buying honey want to know it's genuine Melipona
• Advise on henequén product history — the hacienda era, sisal rope, and the transformation of henequén into contemporary design items
• Process sales and manage inventory across varied Yucatecan product categories
• Coordinate shipping for large or fragile purchases — hammocks and ceramics are common large-format purchases

Requirements

• Knowledge of Yucatecan artisan traditions and regional products
• Basic English — Mérida's boutique hotel retail serves North American and European cultural tourists
• Genuine enthusiasm for Yucatecan cultural heritage
• Professional presentation

Benefits

• IMSS, Aguinaldo, vacation + premium
• Staff meals
• Uniform
• Commission

Work environment

Boutique colonial hotel shop in Mérida. Intimate retail environment with a culturally curious international clientele and a genuinely distinctive product category.

About the role

The keeper of Yucatecan material culture. A Yucatecan hammock woven in Tixkokob by a family whose grandfather learned the technique from his grandfather — who weaves 600 knots per hour, who produces one hammock in three days — is not a gift shop item. It is a piece of living craft heritage. The retail associate who tells that story to the Canadian tourist holding the hammock has transformed a purchase decision into a cultural act. That is the Mérida retail associate's most important professional contribution.