My prices are out of control whine.

[citygirl]

So I just got back from the supermarket where I bought a 1KG bag of coffee beans. Ristretto Cabrales - not exactly fancy. And I bought it in Moreno - not exactly fancy. At Carrefour - not exactly a fancy supermarket.

157 pesos! WTH. If I were in the US, I could buy a 36 oz bag of high quality coffee beans at Wegmans (sigh.. miss that store) for 12.99.

So lets compare. My coffee here (at the official rate) costs $35USD. At the blue rate, it becomes a "bargain" at $25 USD. And in the US - $12.99.

I'm just getting so burned out by shopping here. We buy at the cheap places (I spend a lot of time at Makro). We buy in bulk. We buy what is on sale. We cook at home. And I'm spending an absolute freaking fortune on food.

So tired of it all.... And if one more person tells me how cheap it is here, I'm going to show my food bills down their throat.

Let's see, today I bought (again with the exception of my Carrefour "splurge" - I did all my shopping at the cheap veggie stand, the super cheap granja, the discount pet store, etc).

Supermarket:
Coffee, 3 cans of raid = 230.50 pesos

Pet Food Store:
Cat food (15 kg) 131 pesos.

Vegetable Stand:
potatoes (big bag of the cheap papas negros), 2 kg of tomato, 1 kg of onion, 2 kg of apple, 1 kilo of lettuce, 1 kg of banana. 176 pesos

Granja:
1 maple of eggs (6 trays), 4 kg of chicken wings (bought on super sale at 8 pesos a kilo), 1.25 kg of bacon, 2 salamis, 2 bags of chips = 302 pesos (mayorista price)

So my shopping trip today cost me 839.50 pesos. For nothing fancy besides the coffee and I guess the bacon.

 

[expatinowncountry]

Coffee is imported so it moves with the dollar... to that you need to add the costs for getting the dollars to pay for imports, all the administrative costs to get the authorization to get the stuff out of the port, plus poor logistics and market power from the coffee importing firms in Argentina and there you go... coffee cost you a small fortune. I was last week in Brazil and brought very nice coffee (for Brazilian standards) for 6 dollars the kilo.

On the other hand, locally produced food in Argentina is still cheaper than France (my reference).

 

[citygirl]

Well, it's a hell of a lot more expensive than my reference. new york city. So yeah, I have a problem with it.

And coffee is imported to the US as well.

 

[allcraz]

I'm extremely confused as to how you rung up 176 pesos with that verdulería purchase. Doing the math with prices I just saw/bought today in Almagro, I can't get to over 75 pesos even if I overprice some items.

 

[sesamosinsal]

I had the coffee debate with an Argentine a few nights ago. I told her how cheap it was in the United States, Ecuador, and Brazil (from my personal experience), and her defense was, "Well, this is Argentina."

Sigh.

In April when I was in Brazil, I bought 8 kilos of a brand called Pilao. I wouldn't say it's spectacular coffee, but it's good. $6.50 BRL for 500 grams at the time, with a 1 USD at 1.83 BRL (prior to the central bank devaluation). $3.55 USD. In 2011, when I was in Ecuador, similar story with imported Colombian coffee "Sello Rojo," which is fantastic coffee, in my opinion.

I don't understand why it's so expensive--and TERRIBLE--here.

 

[citygirl]

120 pesos for the papas. See my comment about big bag. It's oh.. 20 kilos I would guess. 6 pesos a kilo.

Article here about the increase in the cost of potatoes: http://www.eldiariocba.com.ar/noticias/nota.asp?nid=55443

The rest was 56 pesos.

 

[Iznogud]

Not too long ago I read elsewhere that a guy (in the US) had dropped his bag of groceries spilling the coffee beans on the parking lot, losing all it´s contents.
I proceed to ask how much was it worth. The answer then was that a pound worth of coffee beans in the US equals the price of 1/4 K of Bonafide´s coffee here. Not the cheapest nor the most expensive stuff.

The guy stated he wanted to cry over the spilled beans. I told him I wanted to cry over the absurd price we pay for java over here. I think I made his day.

 

[allcraz]

Wow! Ok, that IS a big bag of potatoes! haha.

 

[citygirl]

LOL - I buy everything in bulk so 20 kg doesn't seem that big to me We feed between 8-10 people a day here for lunch so it won't last us long. Although given how much the price has gone up, we may be moving away from potatoes as a staple of the meals here.

 

[Rich One]

LOL - I buy everything in bulk so 20 kg doesn't seem that big to me We feed between 8-10 people a day here for lunch so it won't last us long. Although given how much the price has gone up, we may be moving away from potatoes as a staple of the meals here.

Suggest you incorporate instead lentils and black beans,or liver $4 a kilo.

What ever happened to Juan Valdes and Aunt Mamiya...

I will join the Freegans of B.A.