MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Controversy over Uruguay’s summer season: supermarket sales were down 15%
The ongoing controversy in Uruguay as to how ‘modest’ or ‘bad’ was this summer’s season has received some facts to support the discussion: supermarket sales in Punta del Este-Maldonado the main resort area along the Atlantic coast contracted 15%, compared to the previous year, while overall in the whole of the country sales were down 2%. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesMmm. Never mind the 15% drop and the 7% growth in 2010 and the 4% in 2011 (notice a trend there) what about accounting for the fact the supermarkets raise the prices between 10% and 20% for the season.
Apr 15th, 2013 - 12:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I thought we had done well; it seemed everywhere we went was full of argies.
Mind you if all they spent as an average was only USD 826 then they must be at the poorer end, so it's not surprising that Piriapolis did better than PdE as a casual observation.
But if the runes are correct it will be down even further for the coming season. :o(
KyChrisR
Apr 15th, 2013 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I tend to agree with you, but the underground economy is growing. now the use of “Bitcoins” is starting to be used in Argentina for purchases in Argentina, especially for international transactions, it really will be difficult to measure the true economics .
2 Chicureo
Apr 15th, 2013 - 04:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“now the use of “Bitcoins” is starting to be used in Argentina for purchases in Argentina, especially for international transactions”
I am intrigued by this claim, please provide a link to your information.
Chris Dont know whether you are following the news here about the “dollar Colonia” Appparently folk crossing from BA to Colonia withdrew U$D 10 million from the ATMs this weekend
Apr 15th, 2013 - 04:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0chrisR
Apr 15th, 2013 - 06:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As an example: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23014748/bitcoin-bursts-hacker-currency-gets-wild-ride
5 Chicureo
Apr 15th, 2013 - 08:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thank you for the link. The article hardly supports your statement that “the underground economy is growing. now the use of “Bitcoins” is starting to be used in Argentina for purchases in Argentina, especially for international transactions”. So far one guy in BsAs has managed to swap dollars for his BitCoins to a couple from Oz who were probably overwhelmed that they have shifted them without having to buy hard drugs.
One car dealer in Kansas City has asked for details of how he could sell cars for BitCoins, funnily enough one of the major players in what I see as a high risk enterprise to say the least, who happens to be making ‘physical tokens of BitCoins’ lives in nearby Utah: do we suspect a link here?
Also, by making tokens isn’t he destroying what the original idea of BitCoins is all about?
As a former speculator in gold, albeit for a whole nine months I netted, after charges over 29% profit. That was just over two years ago, have you seen what is happening with gold now? In my judgement that is nothing to what will happen to this BitCoin phenonomen, no wonder the main users are the criminals.
The ONLY person I know of who claims to be in this tragedy waiting to happen is Fido Dido an apoplectic Dutchman who lives in the USA and whose views on the financial system are whacky in the extreme.
I think caveat emptor is the rule to work by with BitCoins. But we will see!
ChrisR
Apr 15th, 2013 - 10:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh, you misunderstood my point. Bitcoins is just an example. This last winter I took my entire family to Las Leñas for a ski holiday and pre-paid almost the entire cost in Santiago.
The payment was then funneled onto a Chilean Ltda, which in turn probably went legitimately to another account ... You get the idea.
We paid our other xpenses in dollars whenever possible.
Another example is a friend in San Juan who imports from Chile and pays the aduana a roughly 10% “fee” ...
There are many other examples and certainly I would avoid Bitcoins, but you get the idea...
During the UP in Chile we survived using the black market as well...
Chicureo, nevermind the idiot who claims to live in Uruguay but can't even speak one sentence in Spanish and he is not capapble to understand BITCOIN. We here up North understand and know it's FREEDOM.
Apr 16th, 2013 - 04:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0Here..even in Peru it's being used.
http://maxkeiser.com/2013/04/15/freedom/
7 Chicureo
Apr 16th, 2013 - 11:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0You were correct, I misunderstood your point, well done in avoiding the traps set for law-abiding citizens who just want to spend their OWN money.
@8 Fido Dildo
Truth hurts you does it not.
A wacky Dutchman, living in the USA, why?
Got a partner who speaks Espanol, but I bet it's Mex, not even close to SA Espanol, especially Uruguayo and has no idea how far I have progressed in my local dialect language!
I should consider writing for the comics (or funny pages as the Americans call them) if I were you because your posts make everybody laugh.
Just like BitCoin, laugh a minute that one: BUT for all your bluster I bet you do not have many of these mythical 'coins' do you? 10 or way less than that is my guess as nobody but the ardent start up geeks have more than 10. AND, that claim for freedom! How I laughed, the only freedom these things give you is to LOSE your money.
All you geeks just do not understand the first thing about money which is this: IF THE PUBLIC DO NOT TRUST IT OR DO NOT SEE VALUE IN IT, THEN IT IS FINISHED!
Clue: this is true for ANY money system anywhere.
Now run away and count you BitCoins, the fingers of one hand will be sufficient.
LOLs
Punta is pricing itself out of the market:
Apr 21st, 2013 - 03:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Beachfront restaurant Punta: 2 coffees, bottle of water and Paella for two 1.850,00 Carrasco beach front cafe: Large beer, large miniatures and large french fries: 310
I know people who go from Punta to Maldonado to grocery shop to save money !!
10 eteega
Apr 21st, 2013 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Spot on!
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