Thursday, February 13, 2025

Grocery store bagger, 79, becomes a YouTuber with his cooking channel

At almost 80 years old, Carlos “Tito Charly” Elizondo has gone from bagging groceries at a Monterrey supermarket to newfound fame as a YouTube cooking star and online salesman.

The spry senior offers up recipes for his more than 3,000 subscribers using ingredients such as cream cheese, chorizo, bacon and shrimp which he markets through his videos, taking orders via WhatsApp.

His most recent video, posted on June 1, shows viewers how to make snacks in celebration of beer’s return to store shelves, he says.

A father of three and grandfather of six, Elizondo lost his wife and then his daughters married and moved out. As he reached his early 70s he decided he needed to keep busy. 

At the suggestion of a friend, he took a job as a grocery bagger at a nearby supermarket chain seven years ago where he worked a four-hour shift, but that ended due to the coronavirus pandemic. And once he hits 80 he will have to retire.

Receta de hoy "Botanas a la Tito Charly"
Tito Charly shares some recipes for snacks to go with beer.

 

So he decided it was time to start a new career online, which he has done with the assistance of family members. “My wife was a very good cook, my father-in-law as well. I learned more crazy ideas from them than I can think of,” Elizondo says of his culinary creations.

He sells the ingredients under his own brand, with his daughter filming the YouTube segments, helping him take and fill orders and aiding with technological challenges facing the octogenarian. Tito Charly products are sold in Monterrey, Saltillo, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua, Torreón and Guanajuato. Orders are taken by WhatsApp at 811 102 6685.

Tito Charly posts a new cooking class each Sunday and says he hopes to reach 10,000 followers soon. “I have always been positive. I like to look ahead,” the newly-minted YouTube star says. “There are no impossibilities, there is always a way.”

Elizondo on camera in his kitchen.
Elizondo on camera in his kitchen.

Source: Reforma (sp) El Diario (sp)

Soldiers guard a burned out car (narco blockade) in rural Sinaloa

New York Times: US will designate 6 Mexican cartels as terrorist groups

14
Among the most powerful of the Mexican cartels expected to receive the designation are the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Video of an adult male lion walking the streets of a residential neighborhood in Mexico.

Lion spotted wandering the streets in the Valley of Toluca

0
The adult male lion, found roaming a México state residential neighborhood, appears to have escaped a local shelter allegedly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
An aerial view of semitrailers waiting in long lines for customs at a US-Mexico border crossing, which are facing delays this week

System maintenance provokes customs chaos at Mexico-U.S. border

1
Importers and exporters are facing long lines at the U.S. border while Mexico's online customs portal remains out of action.