Global Courant 2023-05-13 02:18:11
The same scene has been repeated for three months on the border between Santiago de Chile and Mendoza. There are lines that reach several kilometers and waits of up to five hours at Customs to enter Argentina. The main destination of the trip is a shopping tour to supermarkets and hypermarkets.
Official data from the Migration Delegation in Mendoza showed a record in trans-Andean visitors in April: with 194,345 people entering from Chile, which gives an average daily transit of 6,478.
About 80 percent, an average of 5,180 per day, according to the National Gendarmerie, are Chileans who come to buy merchandise, personal hygiene items, or cleaning.
In April 2019, prior to the pandemic, the movement from Chile to Mendoza and vice versa was 128,098 people. But at that time there were more Argentines who traveled to Chile than Chileans who came here. In the last month, this traffic increased by 54 percent compared to 2019, with the addition that the flow of Chileans is now the majority.
Shopping tours are not only in private cars, but more and more travel agencies promote shopping trips, with lunch and a walk through the Cacheuta hot springs, before returning to Chile. “We take them to eat delicious food and rest after the stress of spending several hours in a supermarket,” a Chilean driver told Channel 9 of Mendoza TV.
Lorena Castillo and Rosa Cáceres, from San Felipe, Chile, shopping in a supermarket in Mendoza. Photo: Orlando Pelichotti (Los Andes)
Chileans, mostly middle or lower class people, who need to make a difference with purchases to earn their salary, no longer come only on weekends. “Every day we have clients from Chile and groups on a shopping tour,” confirms Rubén David, manager of the wholesaler Oscar David, in Godoy Cruz, Greater Mendoza.
Wholesale businesses have gained fame among Chileans due to the numerous reports on Chilean TV and posts by influencers who travel to hunt for buying opportunities. “The prices are more than convenient; oil, coffee, sauce, flour, rice, milk and diapers, everything is two or three times cheaper than in Santiago,” says a Chilean tourist interviewed on Chilean TV at the border.
In the case of the Oscar David hypermarket, the flood of Chileans led them to take an unprecedented measure: limit the opening hours of foreign tourists so as not to affect their regular Mendoza customers.
Although the manager assures that there is no shortage and that the empty gondolas are due to the fact that they cannot cope with their replacement, David expressed his concern about the long lines that customers had to make and the discomfort that it caused in regular buyers.
Starting this week, buyers with foreign IDs are served between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., while Mendoza residents are served between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. “It seems like a good measure to me, last week I had to wait in line for two and a half hours to pay for the number of Chileans there were,” says Mercedes, an architect, who buys from this wholesaler every month.
After the constant devaluation of the Argentine peso, the Chileans “invade” the Mendoza supermarkets and wholesalers. Photo: Orlando Pelichotti (Los Andes)
“In March, Chileans began to arrive, they buy yerba, which is very expensive there, olive oil, dulce de leche, alfajores, they take everything they can afford,” says David, the manager of the wholesaler.
He said that in addition to food, Chileans buy medicines and perfumery and cleaning products, such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and soaps. In tune, said Adrián Alín, president of the Mendoza Business Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, who assured that sales in perfumeries and pharmacies have increased, due to the demand of visitors to Chile.
compass tower
In May, the Andesmar bus company, which runs the Mendoza – Santiago de Chile land route, began promoting tours to a hypermarket. The bus departs from Santiago de Chile, at a cost of 40,000 Chilean pesos (50 dollars) per section. The proposal covers two days: for example, departure on Friday, breakfast included, and return on Saturday afternoon.
Passengers have between 6 and 8 hours to make purchases, which will depend on the delay at the border. And they can carry as luggage a suitcase in the hold per passenger with a maximum weight of 30 kilograms, plus a backpack or handbag per passenger.
Chileans have a 300 dollar franchise available for purchases abroad, so if they exceed that amount they will have to pay a tax to the trans-Andean treasury upon their return.
The Chilean authorities control that purchases are not made for commercial purposes. If a person carries entire packs of merchandise, they can be retained at Customs.
how much they save
A report on TVN, the official Chilean channel, showed the difference in prices between a wholesale supermarket in Argentina and one in Chile. The difference was up to three times less in some products.
For example, sunflower oil in Chile costs 2,890 Chilean pesos, in Mendoza, the same product costs the equivalent of 1,400 Chilean pesos.
Half a kilo of rice costs them 1,580 Chilean pesos in their country, in Mendoza they pay a total of 550 Chilean pesos. A 1-kilogram package of flour costs 920 Chilean pesos in Chile and 320 Chilean pesos in Argentina.
Another big difference is in the purchases of personal hygiene items. Toothpaste in Chile costs them 2,780 Chilean pesos and in Mendoza, they spend the equivalent of 1,400 Chilean pesos.
For the first time in 30 years Chileans find it much more convenient to travel to Argentina. Although in clothing or technology it is still cheaper there.
Inflation in April in Chile was 0.3%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. For this year, the Central Bank of Chile estimated that inflation “will continue to decline in the coming quarters” to close this year at 4.6% and converge on the official goal of 3% per year in the last part of 2024.
Mendoza. Correspondent
PS
