Shopping in Puerto Plata - Canadianjoe

I wonder if I could help Canadianjoe to have a less expensive shopping list? I also purchase tomatoes, carotts, cucumber, lettuce & celery from the same shop Joe uses (Supermercado Messon) yet I pay HALF the price Joe pays. How? I go on Tuesdays when it is 2 packets for the price of one! Hamburger meat I prurchase at Supermarcado Tropical on Thursdays (10% discount on meats day). I personally wouldn't use Messon's for toiletries as I don't find that they are the best value - my deodorant is not the 76 pesos Joe pays - it is 22 pesos (try Casa Maria in Beller oposite Roma 11 for toiletries).

Is Joe looking for brand names he recognises from his country of origin (eg Scope, Crest, Gillette, Kellog's)? If he tried the local products or those imported from South America (NOT North) he would notice a price difference - e.g. Maizoro's Fibre Uno is the same as Kellog's raisin bran but only 2/3rds of the price (this is a Mexican company, so it helps if you can read Spanish to understand the label).

I wonder if the root problem is the wish to import "Standard of living" similar to one's own country of origin (Joe's posting of the 14th June). When I first came to live in the D.R. I didn't know what the "standard of living": was - I quickly discovered many people were poor but they survived. I learned to do likewise. It never occured to me to use terms like "lower" standard of living - it was just "different". I have lived in several "Foreign" (to me) countries in my life & have always found it helpful to start off with as open an outlook as possible, rather than importing my value judgements from a previous counttry & existance. Of course, it is human nature to make comparisons, I find certain items in the DR extremely expensive to purchase (like vcars for example). What do I do? Either do without or save up until I can afford to buy the item outright (no financing which IS expensive here).

The vast majority of Dominicans do NOT earn RD $17,000 or RD $25,000 per month. They manage. A cost/benefit analysis will show that this country provides many advantages to which a monetary sum cannot be attached (the people, the climate etc). Foreigners living abroad need a sense of adventure - has Joe's become a little burried under other issues? - Ginnie.

Excellent Ginnie.
I am working near Atlanta, Georgia and can't wait to retire to DR. Went to the store yesterday and here are some prices:
Tomatoes: US$2.99 a pound
Bacon: 3.99 a pound (tastes like bacon instead of shoesole)
Georgia Peaches: $.69 a pound
Avacodo: $1.29 each
Lettuce: $1.39 each
Bananas: $.59 pound
Bread $1.69 (1 pound loaf)
Potatoes $.79 a pound
Whole milk: $1.29 a quart
Beans: $1.39 2 pound bag

REALLY WANTED A CANTALOPE, BUT $1.99 each (I'll wait)

Well, thats US$16.10 or about RD$269.67, thanks Mr. Kroger (the store at which I shop).
Enough said, time to sit and watch food as its to expensive to eat. JIM

Hey Jim,

Are you Dominican? I am and live in ATL

No DR in Atl, I'm a gringo, my wife is Dominican. She stays at home in Florida while I earn it and she spends it. Just a joke, she saves as much as possible so we can move next summer.

Drop an e-mail with your phone number and I'll give you a call.

that's i said last post.. and papaya is 6.50 a small one..by the way. it is not just q question of price.. did you ever taste chiken in DR ? Pork chops ? fish ? etc ,, don't you taste it better than our freezen products ?

I agree that the pork chops and fish are excellent, but the way the chicken is usually prepared in the DR they leave the skin on and use mainly dark meat... very little actual meat.

I call them dominican racing chickens....

The Dominicans seem to like them that way but I prefer the fat gringo chickens....