Buenos Aires Supermarkets More Expensive Than London?

[ajoknoblauch]

PS: I think my neighbor's 2 hectares (just under 5 acres) with two houses is still available for $85K USD.

Well, yes, but look what they'd have to put up with in the neighborhood.

 

[Girino]

I think Steve would be a lovely neighbour. I'd go grocery shopping in his courtyard and get free English lessons included in the price. To me, it's sounds like a deal!

 

[steveinbsas]

I think Steve would be a lovely neighbour. I'd go grocery shopping in his courtyard and get free English lessons included in the price. To me, it's sounds like a deal!

That was lovely. Thank you.

As they say on a US TV show\;

Serafina, come on down!

(The Price Is Right!)

PS: And don't worry: The "No Troll Zone" sign only applies to snarly older white males from the USA who think they are funner than Bill Maher and believe their repetitious one line comments prove they are intellectually superior to everyone (like no one would notice).

 

[johnw100]

The fact of the matter is that the average Argentine is paying more for their groceries,etc than the average Londoner who is liable to be far better off than most Porteños .Now I dont know what the average salary is in London but the UK is about £26k per year and Argentina is about £12k. So its about half and yet people pay almost double for a loaf of bread here. So that loaf of bread is effectively 4 times the value to locals here as to one in London.

Myself and my Argentine wife moved here to do the same jobs as we did in London. My wife took home £3k a month in London, she takes home £900 here doing the same job, with less holidays and benefits. I luckily can work in IT from home for UK companies, but when I do local jobs I have to charge 1/6th of what i`d get from UK companies.

Here for example we go to the shops to buy clothes for our kids and we get charged the equivalent of £30-40 for some school trousers. We would spend £3 for the same or better quality in London. £3!!! 10 years ago it use to be the other way around, we came to BA to buy our clothes.
Another example is I sold my 5 year old digital camera here recently, I actually received the price I paid for it new in the UK 5 years ago. Its ridiculous.

 

[Girino]

Oddly enough, in Argentina supermarket prices are higher than at the small shops, which is opposite to what happens in Italy (and I suppose Europe-wide).
Veggies at Coto are much more expensive than in the fancy verduleria in downtown San Isidro, and Coto's quality is lower. It beats me why people buy veggies and fruits at the supermarket here in Argentina!

It is hard for me to keep track of veggie prices because in small shops they are not always shown - I guess they change too rapidly so they don't even bother. I can afford the luxury to buy whatever I want to buy. I just keep in mind that acelga is cheaper than espinacas, or that cebolla is cheaper than cebolla de verdeo or puerros, etc.
The local Al Campo store is always full of people, especially elderly people, and offers even lower prices (but for lower quality, usually, and there are huge displays where everybody touches everything, so I personally don't shop there).

When I arrived here I thought about making my own jam by buying large quantities of fruit, but it turned out it is more expensive than buying artisanal jams for around 35-40 ARS/jar.
Anyway, I was surprised to find prices basically unchanged in Italy after a year. Chocolate is so inexpensive over there, and used to consider it expensive when I lived in Italy! But here to find a decent chocolate you have to shop artisanally, paying 50 g of chocolate what in Europe would buy you a 300 g bar of Lindtt at the supermarket!

So yes, Argentina is so damn expensive as far as food goes, and the quality is much lower.
Regarding the price of clothes I wouldn't be that critical. Clothes in Europe are so cheap because they come from Asian sweatshops, so they don't carry a fair price tag, just a cheap one. Of course, this leaves unchanged the fact that in Argentina clothes are in general rubbish - I wouldn't use the price of sweatshop-produced goods as a benchmark.

 

[johnw100]

So yes, Argentina is so damn expensive as far as food goes, and the quality is much lower.
Regarding the price of clothes I wouldn't be that critical. Clothes in Europe are so cheap because they come from Asian sweatshops, so they don't carry a fair price tag, just a cheap one. Of course, this leaves unchanged the fact that in Argentina clothes are in general rubbish - I wouldn't use the price of sweatshop-produced goods as a benchmark.

The issue is that Argentine,Brazilian,etc sweatshops are producing clothes at the opposite end of the scale to Asian sweatshops, too expensive and too poor quality.

 

[Rich One]

Sockhopper: Lenin had a pet name for Westerners like you who would enthusiastically spout left-wing clichés to demean their own countries and support failing socialist regimes. Do you know what it was?

Yes Krumiros B)

 

[mikic007]

To buy cheap in ba you have to buy things in 10+ different shops and apply all possible discounts. After a while you just avoid the biggest frauds and swallow the rest. Even here shops just reflect society, which prefer easy way to the right way and I can't really blame shops for that.

Still I find food here affordable, but I'm mostly buying raw materials and cook for myself, and because of my rustic taste this is very cheap (you tried cabbage with little meat inside? For 3 meals you won't pay more than 40p with potato included..). But I had to give up shrimps, for this will be time when I move to Spain again.

You just have to adapt a bit and do what people in third world countries usually do - do it by yourself.