Elastic prices

Prices here seem to be quite elastic, changing from day to day.

The water I usually buy cost me 9.9 pesos for 4 litres last week, but this week when I went to stock up, it had risen to 14.9 - a 50% increase! Walmart had it advertised for 9.9, but both times I went there they didn’t have any. I ended up buying another brand, but when I went back to the original shop the next day, it was back down to 9.9. Makes no sense to me.

The white wine I’d been buying for 40 pesos a litre, has suddenly jumped to 52.

Similarly, my usual milk jumped from 8.9 to 11 in a day, so I think I’ll hang on for a few days and see what happens, maybe it will change again.

There are price differences even between various shops of the same supermarket chain, so the prices are obviously not set by head office. And between different supermarkets prices can vary quite dramatically - when Mega had oranges for 2.9 a kilo, they were still 10.7 at Walmart. Each supermarket sends shoppers to the others so with their docket they can prove that their own prices are lower than the competition, but in the end you just work out which shop to go to for each item you want. Walmart’s donuts are always cheapest at 3 pesos each, Chedraui are 4.1 while Mega’s are 5.5. The Soriana at Plaza Maya used to have a great deal of 14 pesos for both coffee and donut, but their coffee machine has disappeared recently. Hopefully it will return.