My Life in Argentina and Beyond

Thrift shops. I adore them! I love discovering new ones. It’s better than looking inside somebody else’s closet. There are so many interesting things in thrift shops. Clothes discarded by the well to do, the rich, sometimes the very rich. What sort of things do these people give away to charity? I love robes and English china stamped with the name Wedgwood, Minton, Grindley, Myott or Royal Doulton. I love just plain beautiful things that somebody no longer wants. There was a large plasma TV at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop this afternoon. The picture was so clear that the old I Love Lucy episode looked like a movie.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007: Potatoes, have reached the $4 peso per kilo mark. And calabazas, better known as squash, 10 pesos per kilo. There is a new boycott this week. Consumers are encouraged not to buy either one of these products until the prices go down, way down. Hurrah! Hurrah!

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.

Saturday, October 14, 2007: This week´s tomato boycott has been largely successful. The price per kilo has dropped from around 18 pesos to 6 or less. Coto, a large supermarket chain, had them for sale at 8.90 pesos today. Sometimes the neighborhood greengrocer is a better choice, though you can´t pick the vegetable yourself. A very young greengrocer apprentice picks them for you, weighs it and tells you how much it is.