Shopping for groceries in Merida, even after four years, is not the mindless but somehow comforting activity we used to take for granted back in California.
As the Mexican economy has improved and Mexican corporations have begun to join the 21st Century, grocery shopping in Merida has gotten easier and less strange.
Note we said “less” strange… but not NOT strange.
First of all, there’s the all important choice of where to shop. For some reason, there is no one place that has everything we need on a regular basis. If we weren’t fond of some of the foods that we grew up with and now feel we would rather not do without, we might only use the more local choices for grocery shopping: the downtown mercado (market), the neighborhood mercados, the ISSTEY, or the corner tendejones.
The downtown mercado has great fresh local vegetables and fruits, as well as all sorts of exotic things made and grown locally, and a wide assortment of things everyone needs like socks, underwear, shoes, birds, pirated CDs, hammock hooks, flowers, huipiles, votive candles, pig heads and Christmas lights. It’s incredibly picturesque, alternately charming and squalid. The problem with shopping in the mercado is we mostly want to whip out our cameras all the time, and very little shopping gets done (see our Photo Gallery for some recent mercado photos).
And we can’t find brown sugar and cinnamon Pop Tarts in the mercado to save our souls. Our local mercado in Parque Santa Ana is great for fresh vegetables and fruit in season. Fresh squeezed jugo de naranja and toronja (orange and grapefruit juice) is cheap there, and for a quick panucho or a plate of cochinita pibil, it’s the perfect place. But again, no Pop Tarts.
Okay. We really don’t eat *that* many Pop Tarts… consider “Pop Tarts” a literary device, a metaphor, to indicate any number of things that we want to buy that were widely available back in the States, but not here.
Another option is always ISSTEY, the government-subsidized grocery store that is just a block and a half from our house. It’s a great place to buy packaged goods manufactured in Mexico (mostly) and the U.S. We can buy Ritz crackers, hot dogs, rice or toilet paper at ISSTEY, but no fresh fruits or vegetables. And, you guessed it, no Pop Tarts. 
If we’re in the office whipping up a quick lunch and suddenly realize we don’t have any mustard, or perhaps the hidden stash of potato chips has been invaded by marauding ants, then we dash down to the corner tedejon. In the States, long before 7-11 convenience stores, there were little mom and pop grocery stores. Remember those? They sold a variety of things you need just to get through the day, like mustard and potato chips and ice and aspirin and little bags of colored balloons. Those stores still exist here in Merida. There’s one on every corner, or so it seems. The tendejon near our office really outdoes itself by offering over 20 flavors of potato chips, along with freshly made salbutes and tortas. You can also get every kind of soft drink you might want, as long as you might want a Coke.
So, that brings us to the next tier of grocery store choices, which we organize into three categories: Mexican chains, multi-national chains and bulk-item chains. The Mexican chains that have stores in Merida are Chedraui, Soriana and MEGA (Commercial Mexicana). Each have multiple locations here and all seem to follow the same model, which is similar to the WalMart here. Each store has groceries, a pharmacy, clothing, toys, a garden section, a hardware section… y tanto mas!
Of the three Mexican chains, we have come to prefer the newly-opened and architecturally-challenged, garishly- orange MEGA store. While we decry the way the store looks (those big orange letters give new meaning to the term “eyesore”), we love the fresh-baked sourdough bread, the occasional foreign foods (at Christmas we found our favorite Dutch cookies there!) and the extensive meat and vegetable departments.
If you want to shop at a multi-national chain store, you have one choice: WalMart (photo above). Suffice it to say, WalMart has Pop Tarts. We cringe as we shop there, hating ourselves for supporting the cheap-labor exploiting, local culture destroying, domineering corporate monster that WalMart is. But sometimes, it’s the only place to find really important stuff, like… you know. (And to be fair, WalMart is a better neighbor and employer here than in the States. No credit due WalMart. It’s Mexico.) The Merida WalMart is located at the busy intersection of Paseo de Montejo and Avenida Colon, across from the Hotel Fiesta Americana. It opens early (7 am) and stays open until 11 pm. It doesn’t seem to close for holidays either.
Before we go on, and while we are on the subject of employee relations, a word about propinas (tips). In your grocery shopping experience, you will regularly come across two kinds of service people that expect and deserve (usually) a tip. The first is the young man or woman who bags your groceries. In most stores, the grocery baggers are students, some of whom seem very young, but all of whom probably really value this opportunity to contribute to their family income. On rare occasions (and only if you ask) they will actually bring your bags out to your car for you. But most people just let them bag the groceries and tip them a few pesos for the service (we usually tip 5 pesos or more if they did a really good job). One of the things we love about Mega is that they also employ senior citizens as grocery baggers. Those seniors have carried a bag or two in their time and they tend to bag more carefully and thoughtfully. We always tip them at least 10 pesos. 
The second kind of service you will need (even though you wonder why you never needed it before) is the man who picks you up in the parking lot, pushes your cart to your car, unloads your groceries into the car and then navigates you out of your parking space and on your way. We must admit to feeling put upon by these (mostly older) men sometimes. But we pay 5 pesos usually for being waited upon as if feminism had never happened. And in all fairness, these men need to earn a living and there are probably plenty of people that love having their groceries carried out and unloaded for them. We find it rather unnecessary most of the time, but when we’ve done a lot of shopping at Costco or bought large and unwieldy items, those men do come in handy.
The bulk-item chains are Costco, Sams Club and Bodega Aurrera, a Mexican-flavored lower-income version of WalMart (owned by WalMart).
Wal Mart and Costco are the only stores that have fresh milk. (Although in the last few weeks, we have started buying milk from the new traveling milk man who drives a little cart that goes “moo!” (photo at right). His milk is fresh and pasteurized, produced by a local hacienda south of Merida). Wal Mart and Mega are the only places that regularly carry organic boxed milk. WalMart also has a growing contingent of organic fruit and vegetables. Wal Mart has the cat food our cats like (Friskies canned salmon), but Mega now carries it more often than not and has the special cut of meat (complete with marrow bone) that we buy for our dog, Url. Mega has butter from New Zealand and Denmark, and has even started to carry balsamic vinegar and English Breakfast tea in their special foreign foods section. And just when you think you have it all figured out, our favorite place to buy steaks has become the Covi liquor store (it’s from Argentina… the steak, not the liquor store).
When we first moved here, shopping for groceries at WalMart was strange in itself. WalMarts with groceries hadn’t come to our town yet. We got over that easily… but then there was the milk issue. Some of us drink milk every day… and every other time we went grocery shopping, there was no fresh milk at WalMart. No fresh milk! How can that be? Fresh milk at the grocery store is just… well, a given. Its like air or something. Four years later, we still cannot count on fresh milk at WalMart, but now we have the milk man with the truck that goes “moo!”, or we have boxed milk. Boxed milk has a slightly different taste, but it stays fresh a lot longer, we can buy it anywhere and those boxes fit in the refrigerator better.
Mayans apparently don’t get along well with milk, so milk is not a priority for them. But yogurt… that’s another story. Every grocery store in Merida sports an amazingly long and well-stocked yogurt aisle. Not a section, an entire aisle. There are more kinds of yogurt and liquid yogurt and yogurt flan and yogurt with granola and yogurt with nuts… you get the idea. Yogurt is big here. And while the yogurt in the grocery store isn’t appreciably different from yogurt in the grocery store back home (thank you, globalization), we’ve had delicious fresh homemade yogurt in restaurants around the Peninsula. One word of caution: if you like plain yogurt, check the ingredients. Most yogurt sold as “plain” here in Mexico has sugar in it.
In the bakery section, there is a large selection of breads and pastries. All the offerings are laid out on open air shelves for maximum exposure. You, the shopper, are expected to go to the bakery’s central counter and pick up a large round silver platter and a pair of tongs. Balancing your plate in one hand while you push your cart around, you pick out the baked goods that you want and bring them back to the counter, where they are bagged and weighed and returned to you, ready to pay for at checkout. The variety of baked goods is quite astounding. WalMart, Chedraui, Soriana and Mega all have their own bakeries, so everything is fresh. They don’t seem to bake with preservatives here (that’s a good thing) so bread goes stale quickly. We’ve learned to buy just what we need for a few days.
The same is true, by the way, of fruits and vegetables. (We have read that fresh fruits and veggies in supermarkets back home are for the most part “radiated for freshness” i.e. exposed to radiation so that they don’t rot as quickly. The jury is out on whether this is good for humans or not). Fruit and vegetables go bad faster here as well. Partly, we think it’s the climate. But even in the big grocery stores, we think they don’t “radiate for freshness” here.
Fruits and vegetables in the mercados are actually available based on the season in which they are grown, just like in the “olden days” in the US. They don’t have mangos all year round… only when they are in season. But when they have them, they’re locally-grown and delicious!
The fruits and vegetables are increasingly fresh and available all year long in the grocery stores (unlike four years ago when we moved here). Four years ago, we had a hard time finding good lettuce, and celery was sold by the stalk, but only occasionally. All that has changed now. There are bags of celery and choices of lettuce. The choice of chilis is astounding, as well as lots of veggies and herbs that you don’t find easily in the States (epazote, anyone?). WalMart and some of the other stores sell fresh fruit and vegetable juice in the mornings (it’s fresh, and it’s usually sold out by noon). The meat is mostly good, and the pork and chicken are delicious here. There’s a wide variety of good fresh fish and shellfish. And as we mentioned, we can get Argentinian beef, which really does taste better than any other kind.
By the way, if you find yourself wanting sliced turkey or ham, you’ll probably have to go to the meat counter and order it. The packages of pre-sliced meats are not plentiful in any of these stores. When you order your meat, you have to tell them how much you want in kilos. Un cuarto is a quarter of a kilo, un medio is a half. We’ve found that two people have a hard time eating through un medio of sliced meat before it goes bad. You can also buy tocino (bacon) this way, though pre-sliced bacon packages are easier to find. We generally prefer the San Rafael brand (silly us… because it is more expensive we think perhaps it might be better) and we generally stay away from the FUD brand, because we think it’s a very silly name for meat.
Usually there is only one brand (maybe two) of cat or dog food at a given supermarket. (There’s more at the pet shops… but that’s a recent phenomenon as well). Organic foods are starting to show up more at WalMart and occasionally at Mega. And until recently, good bread was practically impossible to find. We tolerated Bimbo’s Mulitgrano (multi-grain). But in the last few months, MEGA has started baking sourdough baguettes. And on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, Costco has four different kinds of whole-grain baguettes (pumpernickel raisin, whole grain, etc) that are truly delicious.
Beyond the contents of the stores, there are differences in the “style” of grocery shopping in Merida compared to the States. The reason the balancing act in the bakery department doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people is that no self-respecting Meridano would dream of going grocery shopping alone. Families shop together, turning the chore into an event. Saturdays seem especially targeted for this activity. Most gringos we know avoid Saturday afternoon shopping because they don’t seem to like crowds as much as the locals. It’s a definite cultural difference. We often run into friends and acquaintances on Sunday mornings, which is a quiet time to shop because most of the gente decente are in church.
In the States, most of the ‘behind the scenes’ work of stocking shelves and pricing in grocery stores is done in the middle of the night. You rarely see that sort of activity when you are grocery shopping during waking hours. Not so in Mexico. In Mexico, the stores don’t stay open 24 hours a day. The ONLY thing that is open 24 hours a day are some farmacias (pharmacies) and the little convenience stores, like 7-11 and Oxxo. So the aisles of every grocery store chain are often crowded with employees, pallets and boxes. They don’t seem to think that shoppers should have the right of way, either.
Often sharing that crowded aisle are food company representatives anxious to stick something in your mouth. Some days are worse than others. Sometimes there will be a little table set up in every aisle, with a lovely young woman handing out little cookies or tiny cups of yogurt. On a good day, someone is handing out tiny cups of vodka. This from a State that won’t sell you liquor before 11 am, after 9 pm, on Sundays and on voting days. And, as we discovered when Wilma was bashing Cancun, if a hurricane is in the neighborhood.
It’s getting easier to find almost anything in the grocery stores here. Until about a year ago the tea selection was limited to menta (mint), manzanilla (chamomile), canela (cinnamon) and negra (black… but no self-respecting tea drinker would bother). Now we have English Breakfast and Prince of Wales, but none of the fancy teas you see in the United States. The all-important Pop Tarts (the product, not the metaphor) came along about two years ago. Real maple syrup is only available at Costco, and then only occasionally. We don’t do frozen dinners or frozen foods much anymore. What would be the point? Most locals agree, so consequently the selection is small. The only American brand of ice cream is Haagen Dazs and they must hide diamonds in it because it costs a fortune. (Though we admit, sometimes it’s worth it…)
(Haven’t found a diamond yet though…)
Grocery shopping is a microcosm of the world we live in, wherever that happens to be. Mexican grocery stores are catching up with American grocery stores by leaps and bounds, while not replacing the traditional mercados. The worst thing about grocery shopping in Merida is those darned employees crowding the aisles. The best thing is the incredible range of choices from the downtown traditional mercado to Mega… y tanto mas!
EDITORS NOTE, October 2007: There’s a new grocery store on the scene as of a few months ago. Superama! It sounds like the superhero of grocery stores, and in a way, it is. Superama is located on the Prolongación Montejo, in Campestre, and it caters to those Mexicans who want to shop like North Americans. And of course, those of us from North America don’t mind it so much either. Superama is a grocery store that almost completely makes you think you aren’t in Mexico. They still don’t have Pop Tarts, but it’s probably because they think you shouldn’t eat them. You can find more organic goods here than in any other grocery store, as well a lot of other items that wouldn’t look out of place in an upscale California home. It’s not cheap, but sometimes it is very satisfying.
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Wow– this is piece is exhaustive in the level of detail provided!… was this piece by chance fueled by more than a couple of Pop Tarts (the product, and therefore the metaphor)? Truly, a tour de force of shopping advice for Merida newcomers, and highly entertaining to those of us already here. Gracias.
Great entry. These discriptions of the nitty gritty of daily life really convey a feel for what it is like to live there. Here’s a question for you…we are advised to avoid eating raw, unpeeled fruits and vegables in Mexico. How do residents deal with this? It is not sufficient to wash with tap water, is it?
Hola, KAT! Como te va en Oaxaca? Tienes mucho diversion en los lugares de scattering? Nunca nos hemos estado alli (todavia). Gracias por tus comentarios.
Joe, for the real poop on this issue, see our most recent post, called Montezuma’s Revenge, under the Yucatan Survivor topic. We wrote it with you in mind.
Well, thanks for the info - although I must say it was nittier and grittier than I expected.
I must say I enjoyed immensely your posts on tirix tá, which is the Mayan term for runny poop, and the groceries. If I could add my 2 cents, I would like to remind you of the fresh meat offerings that the Comercial Mexicana lays out each day, on a table, near(!) the refrigerated cases… Yum!
I would be honored to have be on your link list!
Saludos
Did I just write have be? hmmm…
Joe: Maybe next time we should soak our articles in Microdyne to remove the nits and grits.
William: We just thought “have be” was a Yucatanism for the Mayan “ha beh”, which could be “loosely” translated as watery trail…
On a completely similar subject, when we were driving around the Yucatan outback, we ran into a Mayan pueblito called Poop. Ever heard of it?
A link to NotTheNews by El Maloso has been our honor to add to the link list. Now who the heck is William Lawson?
Love your articles.
One question which would help me:
Can you tell me what I might spend on average
for buying food each month ?
Thanks
Hi Steve,
How much you spend on food depends on the kind of food you eat and the lifestyle you want. You can shop at the local mercados, spend less and eat like a local. Or you can go to any number of modern grocery stores and spend like a gringo. Or some combination of the two (our preferred method).
You can eat every meal at a local restaurant or a cocina economica and still not spend more than $12 a day. Or you can go whole hog at a tourist or upscale restaurant and spend well over $120 for dinner.
If you go the less expensive route, you will still be eating well. The food at cocina economicas is healthy, home made and fresh. Lunch at the cocina economica around the corner costs $25 pesos (a little more than $2 USD) and is often more than we can eat. For an extra $6 pesos, you can get a horchata or an ice cold Coca Cola. At the corner tendejon, Salvador’s wife makes great panuchos. They are $3 pesos each. Three of those with a little habanero sauce on top is a great lunch… or Yucatecan breakfast. Tacos at Wayan’e are $7 pesos each. Four of those are our usual lunch.
A meal at Burger King is over $50 pesos. And it doesn’t taste good! That’s why we never eat at those places anymore.
You get the idea.
The nice thing about Merida is that you have a lot of choices. Hope this helps!
I got a few laughs reading your article. I am Yucatecan and lived in California for 30 years. I truly miss the mercados of merida and the lifestyle of the city. Shopping in supermarkets in the US is a lonely task and most of the time a dreadful task we don’t look forward to. I love fresh food and cook everyday as fresh as possible. My husband (an american) loves my cooking and he used to live on frozen foods and pollo loco, now when I don’t feel like cooking, he would ask for at least a home made sandwich rather than going out to dinner. I cook half yucatecan, half mexican with the american ingredients. Find the calabacita frita con pork, delicious. My husband and I will be visiting in October. I will be showing off my hometown! I commute 110 miles each day, spend 2 gas tanks a week, hate the traffic, love my air conditioner, love the dry weather, Merida is too humid. However, I love Merida and I wish I could retire there! Yucatecans are very friendly and kind people. You don’t find friendly people in California. If you smile and say good morning to a stranger they look at you funny! there must be something wrong with you!
Bomba!
Hola, Leticia!
It’s so funny that you say that shopping in the US is a lonely task. As gringos, we sort of expect it to be that… but of course we have noticed that the local Yucatecans turn grocery shopping into a family affair. Dare I say, even into a party!
And about friendly people. When I moved to NYC in 1976, I was struck by how unfriendly people in NYC were compared to those from my hometown, Los Angeles. But the last few times I’ve gone home to California, I’ve noticed that people in California don’t smile and say hello anymore either. Of course, living in Mexico, I have become very accustomed to this. It seems downright RUDE now to pass someone on the street without saying “Buenos dias” or “Buenas tardes” and smiling. But if you do that in California, you can just see their little brains saying to themselves, “Do I know her? Why is she bothering me?”
I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time in Merida showing your husband around!
Your web site is great and has given us a lot of information and answers to some of the questions we had about retiring in Mexico which is our plan. One question which is still unanswered is approximately how much would be the monthly expense for food for a couple?(cooking at home), we have been told that with about $1000 - 1500 US a month we could cover normal household expenses, is this true? We would appreciate if someone could answer these questions. We are planning to visit Mexico before year end to look at some properties or a lot to build our home since the area of Yucatan appeals to us. Thanks!
OK, OK!! We think it’s time to write something about the cost of living here. So we will take on that task… but keep in mind that it’s *very* subjective. We could easily eat here on $5 US a day and not go hungry. But we don’t, because we like our wine from California, our Parmesan from Italy and our beef from Argentina, etc. So, we’ll do our best. But please take it all with a grain of salt (or maybe, a pinch of salt, in the case of the beef from Argentina…) and understand that no matter how many assurances you get from other people, moving to another country is a risk… which is what makes it an adventure!
In general, most things in Mexico are cheaper. But some things aren’t. And everything could change tomorrow (or rather, the day after you leave everything behind and move here). If you didn’t learn it in the 60’s, living in the Yucatan has a way of teaching you to “go with the flow”.
Here is something that came to us because we have mentioned that WalMart carried organic food now:
Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Nonorganic Food as Organic; Group Asks USDA to Fully Investigate Organic Product Misrepresentation
CORNUCOPIA, Wisconsin - November 14 - The Cornucopia Institute, the nation’s most aggressive organic farming watchdog, has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA asking them to investigate allegations of illegal “organic” food distribution by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Cornucopia has documented cases of nonorganic food products being sold as organic in Wal-Mart’s grocery departments.
“We first noticed that Wal-Mart was using in-store signage to misidentify conventional, nonorganic food as organic in their upscale-market test store in Plano, Texas,” said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute. Subsequently, Cornucopia staff visited a number of other Wal-Mart stores in the Midwest and documented similar improprieties in both produce and dairy sections.
Cornucopia notified Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott in a letter on Sept. 13, 2006, alerting the company to the problem and asking that it address and correct the situation on an immediate basis. But the same product misrepresentations were again observed weeks later at separate Wal-Mart stores. Fines of up to $10,000 per violation for proven incidents of organic food misrepresentation are provided for in federal organic regulations.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart announced a sweeping organic foods initiative and declared that they would greatly increase the number of organic offerings for sale in their stores — at dramatically lower prices than the competition. The move by the giant retailer has been under close scrutiny from members of the organic community.
“This is disturbing and a serious problem,” Kastel said. “One can question whether Wal-Mart has the management and staff expertise necessary to fully understand organics and the marketing requirements essential to selling organic food. Given their size, market power, and market clout, this is very troubling.”
A number of other organic food retailers throughout the country, including Whole Foods Markets and many of the nation’s member-owned grocery cooperatives, have gone to the effort to become certified organic in terms of the handling of their products and have invested heavily in staff training.
This past September, The Cornucopia Institute also issued a white paper, “Wal-Mart Rolls Out Organic Products — Market Expansion or Market Delusion?” The report accuses Wal-Mart of cheapening the value of the organic label by sourcing products from industrial-scale factory-farms and Third World countries, such as China.
For the full news release and more on the Wal-Mart legal complaint and white paper, visit http://www.cornucopia.org
_____
If they aren’t being honest about it in the US, chances are they aren’t in Mexico either. I think we can still be sure of the organic milk and a few other things, but perhaps the organic apples and other fruits and veggies are a little suspect now.
Hi,
Enjoyed all the info. We will be passing through Merida on the way to Telchec Puerto. (Our first time to visit this area) We were told that the best place to stock up on groceries for the week is the Walmart in Merida. Can you tell me what the address is and how late they are open.
Thank you so much,
Kris
You ask a great question… so we’ve added the info into the article (above). In case you miss WalMart, there is now a Bodega Aurrera (not sure if this is the right spelling) in Progreso, right at the corner where you turn right to go to Telchac Puerto. This is a Mexican chain that is owned by WalMart. It is geared more to the Mexican pallet (probably doesn’t have as many US products) but would certainly have things like coffee, milk and other staples. You just might not find your particular brand of PopTarts there.
I loved and can relate to the article but, somewhere, in your article, you should have mentioned that the grocery baggers work soly on tips (propina). This is valuable information for gringos to know before they hit the grocery stores.
Thank you so much for mentioning that. We have amended the article with that information.
I loved your article. My son and I go to Cancun almost every year. We love to go to one of the grocery stores downtown and loose our minds in the bakery. I swear they have the most wonderful bread, and it’s always hot,fresh from the oven. We cook most of our food while we are there. I’m looking forward to a trip to Merida soon. I’m starting to look at a retirement destination in Mexico. by the way how humid does it get in Merida?? Any breezes?? I’d be happy to send you some pop tarts!! Thanks for the great info!!
Hola Cynthia,
Best of luck finding your spot in Mexico.
Yes it can be quite humid in Merida, but yes, there are those lovely afternoon rains and breezes from the Gulf. After living here several years, we’ve grown accustomed to the humidity and feel rather dry when we visit up north. For more on the weather here, read our article, called Hay Calor
Here is my experience in grocery shopping in Merida. Working Yucateca’s favorite store is Chedraui in Plaza Americas. Cheaper ($$). Mega Balconies on Circuito Colonias…too expensive for this TexMex ($$$$). Since I worked for WalMart here in Texas for 13 years (1991-2003), I supported the WalMart in Merida and the WalMart owned Bodega Aurrera. That’s my experience. I also had to get use to the Metric system at the stores. lol
Just to add. My wife, Working Yucateca, Ariadna (100% Yucateca) told me the small Mom & Pop stores are expensive. They are just for buying small snack foods. Oxxo is 1 of my favorite convenient stores. The 7-11 is not like the 7-11 here in the US. You can’t get different size coffee with all the variety of flavored creams like here. No slurpees. Working Gringos is right about eating habits, what you eat determines how much you spend on food. I told my wife. As a TexMex, I had an advantage over the average Anglo-Saxon gringos. I grew up with eating beans, rice, and tortillas. Granted, texmex beans are pintos, not black. Our tortillas are flour, not corn. Our rice is what some call Spannish rice. My mom being the anglo-saxon gringa, I grew up with Meat Loaf and mashed potatoes too.
Thanks to my wife. She helped me find the bargins at the grocery stores and the mercados. My appreciation to Working Gringos for their informative articles. Perhaps they may interview Working Yucateca. Knowing Ariadna, she’s too shy to do an interview. lol.
I’ve been looking at this article for over 3 months – and knew something wasn’t quite right. It’s the milk cart! MY milkman has black “cow spots” painted on his cart. Makes it ever so much more believable when it goes “MOO!” You do know that the folks back home think we are about a half a bubble off plumb, don’t you? I don’t care. What do they know? They don’t even have a milkman with a cart that goes “MOO!”
Hola, soy de Chetumal Q. Roo, pero actualmente estudio en la UADY, solo quiero decirles que su blog (pagina, diario, whatever) es muy interesante e incluso útil para cualquiera que no sea de Mérida.
Saludos!
Oh, well, i don’t know if you have good spanish, i just want to say that your blog it’s really interesting for the people that’s new in this city.
Oh, I am really bad for writing in english =(
Question: Does anyone have any information on a mega plaza being built, which is to be larger than Gran Plaza? Where is it going to be built? How large is it going to be. Will the Camions Urbanos go there from Merida? A friend of mine told me about it, but, do not know all the details.
Just to add in this section for readers. Pan Dulces. There are many panderias in Centro. Yet, I found the way pan dulces that are made in Merida is diiferent from Mexican pan dulces made here in Texas. Even the taste is different. Don’t know if it’s the flour used or the baking process. Empanadas here in our Mexican stores have different fruit fillings. Not able to find these in the panderas in Centro. I did find fruit filled empanadas in the Bodega Aurrea. But, only Pina or pinapple filling. Mexican sweet bread here has a variety of fruit filled empanadas. Also, the Cakes that are baked for cumpleanos was a surprise to my tase buds. Tasted kind of watery or wet. No, not the moist texture cakes baked here in Texas. I mean a watery or wet texture. Ariadna says it is made with milk. Yet, the baking process is different. The Mexican food here in Texas is much different than Yucateco food. The taste and ingrediants. Some resturante and stores do have what we call TEXMEX or MEXICANO NORTEANO foods. Just wanted to add this bit of info. When you visit or live in another area of the world, never expect to find the exact foods you are use to back home. Even what is called Mexican Food may differ.
I am wondering if anyone knows if you can buy bisquick or any such mix in Merida.. My father retired there.. and has been looking for some. Thank you.
There doesn’t appear to be a date on this story, but i’m assuming it’s up to date. What is the cost of groceries in Merida compared to the US? Also is there anywhere I can go that gives an up to date monthly cost of living? I’ve looked everywhere and have been unable to find it. I’m talking about things like internet, utilities, food, restaurants, etc. Thanks for any help you can give.
Hola, Casey…
No, there’s nothing like that here…yet. We’re working on it, really we are. The real answer to your question, though, is that you can live as cheaply or as extravagantly as you want here. Like we said in the article, the best thing about this place is the incredible range of choices, which are growing all the time.
And Victoria, if you dad is having a hard time finding Bisquick, suggest he look either at Costco, Superama or Walmart. Those are your best bets for those hard-to-find only-in-North-America kind of foods.
Fantastic blog, very informative, well written and inspirational! Wondering, have you ever seen soy milk offered? We’re leaning toward vegan and know that may be difficult, but can’t wait to see the fresh fruits and vegetables and already love beans and rice! With any luck we will be moving to the Merida area from Minnesota, and are eagerly awaiting the new adventure!
Thank you Working Gringos!
Hola, Mary…
Yes, there is now plenty of soy milk offered here. It can sometimes be a challenge to find it without flavoring or sugar, but it exists. The Mayans are famously intolerant of cows milk, so we think that may have something to do with the rapid deployment of soy milk in these parts.
On the other hand, almost every local dish involves meat of some sort. There are a few vegetarians here, but it isn’t easy.
great info, but can you tell me where these stores are; addresses or blocks, or do we just drive around looking for them?
Allen, here are a few tips. WalMart is across the street from the Fiesta Americana on Paseo Montejo and Avenida Colon. There are Chedraui’s everywhere… at least four that I can think of. The big MEGA store is on Calle 60 where it intersects with Avenida Itzaes. And Superama is on Paseo Montejo Prolongacion, north of the Centro. Yes, a map will be good and we’re working on one for you…
Fresh milk? In Oct. 2007, we saw fresh milk available in the several OXXO convenience stores we stopped at. And the milk was good (though not organic)!
PopTarts? Hey, you deserve WalMart! I just wish OXXO would expand to outside of Merida within the Yucatan.
Thank you so much for this! As an insulin diabetic taking my first trip to Mexico, the question of how and where I would find the groceries I need to keep my special and sometimes rather narrow diet in line was such a worry. You’ve solved the mystery of how to deal with this in Merida and for that, truly, I thank you.
Anxiety free,
Shandra
Diabetes is a pretty common disease in the Yucatan (unfortunately), so we think you will not have any trouble finding the supplies you need. Every grocery store we’ve been in has a “diet” section which includes a lot of products with sugar-substitutes.
Hello,
Thank you for such an entertaining yet very educational piece! My husband and I had quite a few laughs, and we got answers to most of our shopping related questions. As we will be relocating to Merida from the States in a few weeks, we wanted to offer to bring you a couple boxes of Pop Tarts. If you are interested, please let us know within a week or so (today is January 1, 2008).
Lana
Seriously? For months, years we could actually find Pop Tarts here. Now they have disappeared again. Well, sometimes they get strawberry ones at Costco, but…
Let’s just say, if a box of brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts showed up on our doorstep, we would probably let it in.
Thanks for the offer… have a safe trip down here.
-Working Gringos
Hi!
As part of my husband’s job we are being transfered to Merida in March from Acapulco. My husband is English, I am Israeli and we have to girls ages 4 and 2.
Your web site is great. I still have so many questions though (typical…) Are there any Montessori schools, afternoon activities for children and are there any expatriate families with small kids?
Thanks a lot,
Vered
Hello Working Gringos,
You are very welcome! It will be a pleasure to bring you a box of brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts. Don’t be shy to let us know if you want something else. Our movers are scheduled to come on January 22. We’ll be travelling at the end of that week. How can we get in touch with you once we arrive to Merida?
Lana
Just call Yucatan Living at 999-928-0747. We wish you a safe and uneventful move, though the “uneventful” part is highly unlikely!
Love the article, love the website.
I think that you have the streets mis labeled on our Walwart image.
I think the street that comes in at an angle is Avenida Cupules, Avenida Colon hits the same traffic circle an a 90% angle to the Paseo de Montejo. So I think you have labeled Ave. Cupules and Ave. Colon.
Sorry, I should have said “I think you have labeled Ave. Cupules as Ave. Colon.”
I would like to know if they carry pillsbury bisquits or heavy cream or cool whip in cosco or sam’s club in merida mexico
I love this web site and blog. I just want to share a tiny bit of how things are the same and different.
The moo moo carts are a hoot and I look forward to buying milk from them. Somewhere on my computer I have a picture of me buying goat’s milk from a little lady on the street in Cotacachi, Ecuador. I paid $1.00 for a tiny cup of milk that was milked for me as soon as I handed the lady the dollar. It was warm and foamy!
Grocery shopping is always a priority for me and, like one of the other responders here, I worked for a grocery company in Texas - H.E. B out of San Antonio, a huge competitor of Wal-Mart. In Cotacachi, Ecuador, we had a fabulous mercado that was bustling on Sunday with fabulous organic fruits and vegetables from the area. Roses at a couple of dollars a dozen was a necessity ever week.
In order to get “normal” groceries, including milk in a box or cold milk in a strange little bag, we had to take the bus for 35 cents each way or a taxi- a whopping $25 round trip to go to the next town where there was a Super Maxi.
Merida sounds like a breeze to shop in and I look forward to trying all of the shops, big and small.
I do have one question - Can one simply swipe an American ATM at Walmart and get cash back?
Thanks,
Jimmie