大咖福利影院

marcomueses wrote:

Great information!
Just one small observation.
The prices reflect the "packaging" involved for the presentation of the produce to be sold in the Supermarkets.
In many towns, we don't have the supermarket option, take for instance, Same, Sua,聽 Atacames and Tonsupa聽 areas in Esmeraldas.
We buy the products / produce in the "open markets" where prices are more affordable;聽 in comparison, perhaps half the price mentioned.
Just to give you an idea, shrimp can be bought directly from the fishermen at $3,00 - $4,00 / Kg. . Fish (corvina) at $1,50 Kg.
Fresh tropical fruits, papayas, pineapples, soursops, mangoes, oranges, dragon fruit, bananas, at ridiculous prices.
In short; similarly to the climate you can choose to live in , you can also choose where to buy your groceries, thus the price you are willing, or can afford to pay within your budget.

MM

That鈥檚 a great price for corvina. The cheapest I鈥檝e seen it here is $5.50 a pound or about $12 a kg at a mercado, but there鈥檚 risk with shopping for seafood at mercados in Quito.聽 But in general food costs are not cheap in Quito and aside from packaging the higher costs are also attributed to rent, higher salaries and other expenses that supermarkets have. Comparing a capital city鈥榮 prices to a small city/town is like comparing apples to oranges though.

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If someone is disciplined they can save a little money here and there for example Supermaxi has 10-15% off on Fridays for meats and poultry and 20% off on fruits and vegetables on Wednesdays. Friday-Monday is however an unpleasant time to shop as Supermarkets are very crowded. Also when computing time, r/t taxi fare, it鈥檚 just not worth it to divide shopping days solely to get certain items.聽

The mercados are also cheaper for somethings but the fruit and veggie sellers are like mercenaries they have no concept of loyalty. I got fed up with them as you have to be constantly vigilant when shopping as sometimes they鈥檒l sneak over ripened fruits/veggies in your bag. About the only things I buy from there are corvina steaks and lamb and both from sellers I developed a good relationship and they only care about me as customer is because I buy in bulk to minimize trips. The Borrego (lamb) lady I buy from has a walk in refrigerator box on the premises and she鈥檒l take me back there to get specific cuts if I鈥檓 not satisfied with what she has on display.

There鈥檚 also Coral, but no thank you as their meat and seafood section is undesirable (N.Quito), and also Santa Maria that some locals claim in cheaper (my doorman for example) but that鈥檚 relative. And probably cheaper for products that some locals use a lot like rice, soya oil and beans.

lois2b wrote:

Yeah, get rid of the environmentally unfriendly packaging.聽 In Germany, and some other European countries, consumers helped get rid of superfluous packaging by insisting on spending time at the cash register counters removing the packaging before allowing the codes to be scanned, or in some cases, requiring the cashiers to remove the packaging.聽 I don't recall the country, though Denmark is likely, where the government required that the sellers take responsibility for removing the packaging.聽 Either way聽 this resulted in a lot of wasted but paid hours of work as well as the store having to deal with the bulk of the packaging.聽 The end result, of course, was a LOT less packaging.聽

I love doing that, especially around Christmas time when sellers are in a rush to get consumers in and out.

I know of cases where a product has arrived with 6, count them 6, layers of packaging.聽 More cost to ship, more loss of resources (oil and wood, i.e. plastic and paper), greater cost, less product.

Sounds great but we鈥檙e not quite there yet in terms of getting rid of packaging that is detrimental to the environment. Supermaxi and Megamaxi do however sell reusable bags so you don鈥檛 have to use plastic shopping bags all the time. They sell them three for a dollar, and honestly sometimes we take them and sometimes not as we often forget.聽 A good start is banning plastic bags on certain days, and simply beginning with one day. I know some countries have initiated this and increased days gradually.

smitty88 wrote:

Supermarkets, especially in Ecuador, are for people who don't care about prices, except for items they find necessary and cannot find elsewhere.

Using supermarket prices as a food cost indicator is like using tourist restaurant prices.

You make it seem like shopping at a supermarket is luxurious or for wealthy people. Maybe in towns and small cities where supermarkets are viewed as such but that is not the case for Quito. Ecuadoreans from all walks of life shop at supermarkets in Quito. This is evident by the dozens of supermarkets in affluent, middle class, poor and even ghetto neighborhoods. Sur Quito is very poor and I am sure the people who live there think about prices.

Personally we shop at supermarkets because it's how you conveniently get groceries just like many other Quite帽os . Additionally prices are not significantly different from mercados, and supermarkets are much cleaner.