My Life in Argentina and Beyond

Friday, October 19, 2007: The government announced that it would lower the prices on 300 or 400 basic necessity food and other must have items, but no one has told consumers yet which items. On the news the other day, people were interviewed at random as they were shopping at Coto, one of the biggest supermarket chains. Most shoppers said that the 5 or 10 per cent decrease in some yogurt and milk and meat prices are no help at all. Prices have gone up so much lately that paying 5, 10 or 15 centavos less for a carton of milk or a pot of yogurt does not mean anything.
Now that tomatoes have dropped from an outrageous 18 pesos per kilo to a more manageable 3, 4, or 6, sqush has shot up to 10 pesos per kilo. Squash puree has become very popular here in the last year or so, but many people can´t prepare it anymore. Potatoes are not a good second choice-- the price per kilo is high also, at around 5 pesos. And some of the discounted items could belong to generic brands, not top of the line brands that most Argentines trust because they have grown up buying them.