Adventures at BuenosAires verdulerías

I love buying vegetables at our numerous small verdulerías, but strongly favor the ones that post their prices. Last week the prices for lechuga in our immediate neighborhood varied from 20 to 40 to 59 to 100 pesos/kg, the last being at a shop staffed by a woman with a big friendly smile and no posted prices, who apparently changed her response according to the customer’s appearance and accent.

But generally I am pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of the people who staff these small shops. When we are in Las Cañitas, where we lived in 2005, we still get hugs and warm greetings from Irma, at the verdulería across from our old apartment.

I’m glad these small shops haven’t been put out of business by the huge supermarkets, as the person-to-person contact is very pleasant.

We walk 10-12 km/day, and try to take different routes in order to explore different barrios and see new things. Today, we saw a woman in Almagro carrying what looked to be a huge bouquet. Upon looking more closely, I realized the bundle was carrot greenery, not even wilted. I asked where she bought the fresh carrots, and she directed me to a very clean shop with vegetables nicely displayed in racks made of wooden boxes.

Address: Diaz Velez 3761.

Armed with my beautiful carrots, I returned to the apartment and started chopping.

I know what you mean, UK Man . There seem to be no deliveries between Friday morning and Monday afternoon at most verdulerías. Since the shops have essentially no refrigeration (sometimes a small glass-doored unit for only the most perishable few items), the fruit and vegetables, eggs and other things sit, unrefrigerated, in bins for 3 days. We try to buy on Friday afternoons or wait until late Monday.

New subtopic: lechuga.

Can anyone explain the wildly fluctuating prices, both among verdulerias and in the same one? I don’t notice this with other vegetables.

Six weeks ago, we paid 20 pesos per kilo; the next week, the price at the same place was 80. Over the past month the price has ping-ponged all over the chart, from 40 to 120 and everywhere in between.

Interesting: To the shopkeeper trying to sell at 120, I asked why so much? His response was that everything was higher because the dollar was so high. When I asked if the lettuce was from Argentina, he said yes; I asked why the dollar exchange rate would affect the price, when no pesos had to be exchanged, he shrugged and turned his back.

OK, so that guy was just a shameless opportunist, and not a very bright one. But back to the central question: What drives the price of lettuce here?

Quote from Splinter

Reminds me of a chimney sweep I once knew who told me his price had to go up because of the cost of electricity, until I pointed out to him that he was in fact using my electricity.

That is the BEST!

The downside of the neighborhood verdulerías is the utter absence of refrigeration. I am always surprised that lettuce and celery sit in the wooden bins well beyond the point of having either turgor or food value.

And I’m even more surprised to see people buy vegetables that should have been scrapped days earlier.

I’ve taken to skulking (not lurking!) around our usual verdulerías to note the usual days & times they receive their deliveries, in the hope of finding celery that is still green, not yellow, and that resembles a stick more than a rope....

It would make sense to sell produce for a fraction of the full price as it is heading for the veggie nursing home, just to move it out. But the same limp things stay there, unrefrigerated for days. Why do people buy them?

This is very frustrating for a consumer and an observer.

Quote from Splinter

UK Man

I think they make the prices up as they go along.

Definitely. Last month at Disco we bought a bottle of Petite Fleur Malbec for 419, not on sale. Two weeks later it was 559.