Shopping Translations

Last week we went to Costco.....first time since April but then we have been gone a lot. I didn't have my money exchange hat on very well because I kept looking at the prices of things I wanted to buy and thinking that it was too much to pay for the item. Actually at Costco I usually figure the money equivalent and if it isn't more than I'd pay in the US AND I really, really want it and I can't find it in San Miguel, I'll buy it. But one of the problems that throws a kink in that line of thinking is that when we are in the USA there are sales on so many items. You don't see many sales here in Mexico.

As an example, I looked at sea scallops. They were about 280 pesos for 950 grams (2 pounds). My kind of quickie math does the 1:10 thing which makes them about $14 pound. Whoa, more than I pay in Houston. Oh, but wait the peso is hovering around 1:13 which brings it down to about $12.30 a pound. That still seemed like way too much to pay for sea scallops. Then I remembered that while we were in Houston I had bought them a couple of times on sale, once for $6 pound (it was a loss leader for a new grocery store opening) and another time for $9 pound (still on sale) so about $12 a pound might not be so bad if I really, really, wanted them. I guess I didn't. I didn't buy them.

I bought some pork tenderloins, two in the cryovac wrap from Swift & Company. I didn't notice until I got them home but the label on the package says For Export Only. Now what the heck does that mean? That the pork tenderloins didn't meet FDA standards to be sold in the USA? That it is an inferior grade of meat? That label is worrisome but we have already eaten one of them and so far so good.

The picture has nothing to do with this post but I go past this two-story, one room wide house most days when I walk into town. I just liked the colors. I don't think the image would be nearly as interesting without the tiny bits of primary colors from the banners.