Our winter vacation this year is being spent in Puerto Escondido which is in southern Mexico. We rented a very nice vacation property with the intent to cook more and eat in the local restaurants more. We’ve been doing a lot of eating out since the prices are very, very reasonable in the local restaurants but we have been to the large grocery store, market and smaller stores for some food and snacks.
As with our trip to Florida at Christmas, I brought along my list of what I would consider fairly common grocery items that travellers would buy.
Bananas, Ground Beef, Chicken, Eggs, Milk, Butter, OJ, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Bread
Plus my “luxury” items.
Vodka, Bailey’s, Beer
At the bottom of this post, I’ve included a table that gives you pricing for Puerto Escondido and Ontario. My general thoughts though are:
- The more common items to both Mexico and Ontario are considerably cheaper in Mexico.
- Items which I think most Mexicans would not buy like sliced white bread are more expensive in Mexico.
- Booze is definitely cheaper in Mexico; but Bailey’s was harder to find.
Before you look at the details, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Mexico pricing for groceries and beer is from Chedraui (also known as Super Che) which is the big grocery store in town; alcohol pricing is from one of the little convenience stores at Playa Zicatela.
Ontario pricing for groceries is from Loblaws in Lindsay. Beer pricing is from the Beer Store; alcohol pricing from the LCBO. - I only used regular prices. No sales, no coupons
- Grocery prices do not include taxes but alcohol and beer does.
- An exchange rate of $0.067 Cdn to 1 peso is used. ($1 Cdn = 14.82 pesos)
- I tried to used comparable sized packages but didn’t do the calculations to make this an exact comparison.
- If you’re shopping in the grocery store in Puerto Escondido for beer and wine, taxes will be added. 18% for beer; 26% for wine.
| Puerto Escondidio | Ontario | Difference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pesos | Cdn $ | Cdn $ | Pesos | ||
| Bananas, price per pound | 6.59 | 0.44 | 0.69 | 10.30 | -36% |
| Lean Ground Beef, price per pound | 36.36 | 2.44 | 6.49 | 96.87 | -62% |
| Chicken Breasts, bone-in, skin-on, price per pound | 25.91 | 1.74 | 4.99 | 74.48 | -65% |
| Eggs, price per dozen | 22.15 | 1.48 | 2.49 | 37.16 | -41% |
| Milk (1L Canada, 960ml PE) | 18.75 | 1.26 | 2.79 | 41.64 | -55% |
| Butter (1 pound Canada, 500 g PE) | 80.00 | 5.36 | 6.69 | 99.85 | -20% |
| Orange Juice (Tropicana, 1.65L Canada, Florida's Natural 1.75L PE) | 99.00 | 6.63 | 5.49 | 81.94 | 21% |
| Coffee (Maxwell House, 326g Canada; Don Justo 500g PE) | 126.00 | 8.44 | 7.99 | 119.25 | 6% |
| Peanut Butter ( Jif, 500g) | 58.40 | 3.91 | 5.49 | 81.94 | -29% |
| Sliced White Bread | 31.50 | 2.11 | 1.79 | 26.72 | 18% |
| Grocery Basket Total | 504.66 | 33.81 | 44.9 | 670.15 | -25% |
| Absolut Vodka (750 ml) | 245.00 | 16.42 | 27.95 | 417.16 | -41% |
| Bailey's Irish Cream (750 ml) | 295.00 | 19.77 | 30.95 | 461.94 | -36% |
| Beer (Coors Light, Canada; Victoria, PE) | 15.24 | 1.02 | 1.97 | 29.4 | -48% |
There are other good options for shopping in Puerto Escondido. #1 on my list would be the mercado/market which is easy to reach by taxi or collectivo. You can buy everything there from fresh veggies and fruit to meat to clothing to housewares. And, souvenirs, of course.
Happy travels!
Vanessa
Where is the Mercado in P.E.? We just arrived and can’t find it on map.
Thanks.
Susan
Hi, Susan. We either took a cab or a collectivo as most of them are marked that they are going to the mercado so I can’t really explain how to get there. I know we always went by the Super Che and further up the hill. It seemed like quite a distance from the Super Che. I googled it and it looks like it’s at the corner of Cuarta Pte. and Agua Marina. Good luck! Vanessa