My wife, Karen, and I live in Matapalo de Aguirrie, sometimes referred to as Playa Matapalo. We moved here in April of 2007 from St. Petersburg, Florida to escape the horrendous cost of living we faced there. We were also fortunate enough to be raised by parents who taught us there is nothing wrong in spending money as long as you get value for your dollar. That makes us pay attention to prices. Well, the horrendous cost of living we tried to escape has caught up with us and we aren’t getting much value for our dollar here in Costa Rica any longer.
Cost Comparisons
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Apples & Oranges
I KNOW, I KNOW, many of you who are reading this are decrying, “Bull S*^t!!!!”, “I pay less for auto insurance,” “My electric bill is so much cheaper, “I don’t pay anywhere near what I pay in the states for food,” “I can eat in restaurants so much cheaper.” and on and on and on and on… Karen and I see articles like this all the time in The Tico Times, on amcostarica.com, and on insidecostarica.com.
What those who write those articles fail to do is compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, i.e., compare like items to like items!!! They all insist in comparing apples and oranges. Let me explain.
Someone says I have a car in such and such state and a car here and my insurance here is “X” percentage cheaper than what I pay for my car insurance in the states. Well, that is comparing apples and oranges. Now then, what would a like amount of insurance for that same car be if you had it here, i.e., like item for like item. You could also compare what the vehicle registration for that car is in the states and what the marchamo —the registration—would be for that same car here in Costa Rica. Again, like item for like item. You would then get some accurate price comparisons.
The same holds true for electricity. People say I pay nothing for electricity here compared to what I pay in the states. WELL, Jees Louise…here you don’t need A/C or heating, so, YES, you don’t have your stateside electric bill. But again that’s Apples and Oranges. What needs to be compared is the cost per kilowatt hour you pay stateside to what you pay here for a kilowatt hour. We’re paying almost three times per kilowatt hour here than we ever paid in Florida.
When it comes to food, the same thing applies—compare like items to like items. In November for our annual vacation we visited relatives in Alexandria, Virginia; Winchester, Virginia and friends in a small town in Pennsylvania. I took along a list of 11 common food items found in grocery stores both here and there: a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, a can of tuna and a pound each of ground beef, bacon, rice, black beans, potatoes, chicken leg quarters, cheddar cheese and onions to compare prices on. I went to the same chain grocery store each place we went. I compared prices for those same food items from those three stores with like items in an Automercado in Heredura and the Pali in Quepos. GUESS WHAT? In every instance! the prices from the three stateside grocers were cheaper. The telling part is a pound of rice and a pound of black beans at the Pali in Quepos was significantly more expensive than the most expensive stateside store. Again, comparing like items for like items.
I’ve also compared those 11 items with the two supermarkets, Kash–n–Karry and Publix, we shopped in in St. Petersburg, Florida by pulling up those stores weekly ads on the internet. Again, same thing. The Florida prices were cheaper in all cases. The biggest price difference was for a pound of bacon. The highest price at any of the five stateside stores was $3.19 a pound. At the Pali in Quepos it was almost $7.00 a pound and over $7.00 at the Automercado.
There are some things here that are cheaper. Medical care especially, and a few local fruits and vegetables. Postage and telephone rates are cheaper. That’s about it though.
The same held true for the electronics and appliances we looked at. The comparable item here was two to three times the price we saw stateside. Tools, particularly power tools, and plastic items (coolers, etc.) reflected the same gross price difference. Eating at restaurants stateside was pleasantly cheap. Our dentist in Quepos says he loves to go to the states because when he takes his wife he can afford to take her out to eat at a nice restaurant. He particularly likes Lowes and Home Depot because of their cheap prices. The list just goes on and on and on…
There are some things here that are cheaper. Medical care especially. Some local fruits and vegetables are less expensive but they are very, very few. Things are sometimes cheaper in the ferias (farmers markets) but, guess what? I don’t know of any place in the U.S. that doesn’t have a farmers market either in it or close by. Postage here is cheaper. Telephone rates are cheaper. That’s about it though.
All in all if you are going to make price comparisons don’t compare apples to oranges. Compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, i.e., like items to like items, and then ask yourself are you getting value for your dollar. When you do I think you’ll be singing a different song.
Frank Walker
Matapalo
