Culture Reality Check

OK, guys, but seriously - 200 pesos a kilo is less than 50 cents a pound. Are we really complaining? What are tomatoes going for stateside these days?


OH, and decent tomatoes, (not great, but decent), were 150 a kilo at my local outlet of the Peruvian Vegetable Mafia last night.

While I'm at it, let me add that while I joke about the PVM, I am deeply aware that those people work long, hard hours in brutal heat doing a dirty, thankless, poorly-paid job. The prices are not their fault. As in most things here, the problem is a chain of distribution which is ridiculously long and horribly inefficient. The growers are paid insultingly low prices while the consumers are gouged shamelessly, and the produce is often less than entirely fresh by the time it reaches the kitchen of the consumer.

This also applies to eggs, which is particularly aggravating when trying to poach them, grrrrr!

***edit***

While I'm at it, let me answer the rhetorical question I asked in my previous post in this thread -

It's showing 4.38 USD per kilo for tomatoes in San Diego, which at 226 ARS per dollar, is 989 ARS. I'm not sure what to make of that. But this is a live data site, so that will fluctuate.

Looking around that Expatistan site is horrifying. I haven't been stateside since early 2014, and I didn't realize how much prices had gone up. I'd be homeless if I was still there.


Glad you added the prices of tomatoes in San Diego.. I have no idea of the prices stateside, not that I worry about. Tomatoes here went up to $450 pesos ... from $100 a kilo.

One should search daily stateside prices and feel happier about local prices....! Maybe..?

The dollar gained 32 % in 2021 inflation was 51 % .
 
Or you can consider that for the average Argentine worker taking home around $70k per month, a kilo of $450 tomatoes is now worth almost 20% of what they earn in a day.

I think it explains a lot about the service mentality/ mood of employees in supermarkets here and the culture shock we face when encountering those outside of our own socio-economic bubble.... to only earn the equivalent of a few bags of fruit a day must be pretty disheartening.
 
Glad you added the prices of tomatoes in San Diego.. I have no idea of the prices stateside, not that I worry about. Tomatoes here went up to $450 pesos ... from $100 a kilo.

One should search daily stateside prices and feel happier about local prices....! Maybe..?

The dollar gained 32 % in 2021 inflation was 51 % .

450 ARS?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over? In what part of town are you living?!?
 
450 ARS?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over? In what part of town are you living?!?

If you have been watching local TV you sure know about the tomato crisis. I'll go buy a Cajon of tomatoes, and enjoy it ....! what a savings from tomatoes from El Cajon, CA... ! A form of self mental satisfaction..!
 
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