Basic Shopping includes: grocery store, hardware stores, and going to the city for the major shopping.
It seems that every other day I'm going to the grocery store. Here at home we don't have the huge pantry or the space to store the essentials of having food just to have it fill up the pantry. We also have the power outages so you can't stock your 'fridge with too much food just in case the outage last longer than an hour. So far we've had one that lasted a few minutes in the weeks that we have been here.
Right now my pantry consists of cereal, rice, beans, pasta sauce, and cooking oils and a few snacks for school lunches. My grocery store runs from $40-$100 a week. This includes our much loved Panamanian beer Panama. My list consists of bottled water, meat for cooking for the day, vegetables and fruit. We have two grocery stores to choose from: Supermercado Rey and Super 99. Super 99 has fewer selections but a better layout to find things. Also at the grocery store, you can reload your minutes on the phone (I spend about $20 for 2 weeks).
The Rey grocery store rocks! You can shop, go to the meat department, bakery, pay bills, take money out from ATM, and go to the pharmacy all in one stop. I just got to avoid the parking spot where the birds love to decorate parked cars. I will be paying my electric/gas bill there and my water bill. I hear our water bill should be about $8-10 and the electric bill about $80-140 depending how much we use the AC. I've been using it at night mostly in 3 rooms (the bedrooms) but during the day we have the fans going and I have the door open for the ocean breeze to come in...but it is still stinkin' hot!
We've also learned that the hardware stores also carry almost everything else. Electronic cables, surge protectors, batteries and cleaning supplies. Not much different in price either from the grocery store.
Shopping at Pricesmart is my favorite though. Just like Costco but better food tastings. Applying for the membership was easy. Just fill out the form, show your passport and they take your picture and hand you a card and voila! You are a member.
Where else can you go and do wine tastings before you buy? OR taste the paella before you take the pound of cooked paella? Just take home or eat it on the way home as we did. That was stellar paella. 5*****
We bought a monitor, rugs, lotions, shampoos, and other fun and unnecessary things there. The only problem is that Pricesmart is in Panama City.
Panama City is much different than our beach town. One can really get lost with all the one ways and slight detours with all the construction going for the light rail. Thank God for GPS on our iPhones. Without it, Chris and I would be fighting a lot more about directions. Also, Kamila got really good navigating me while we went to 3 different malls this last weekend.
We started at the El Dorado Mall after our PriceSmart experience. This is in Panamas newer Chinatown. Mall has a small casino too FYI. Swimsuits for $15 and not bad. Also I bought a few art supplies - which if I had more time, I would have gone Cornholio. While we shopped, they have guys with portable car washers to wash your car for $5. We had a clean car until the major downpour the next day.
Next day, we went to super Bellevue Mall type mall called Multiplaza Pacifico located in Punta Pacifica district. Yes they had the Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Michael Kors and other stores, but we ended up at kids stores and Hello Kitty - much to Kami's delight.
We then went to another mall, Multicentro Mall located in the Punta Paitilla district, which is one the wealthiest areas in Panama City. This is the largest shopping mall in Central America and has a movie theater, casino, arcade (which I narrowly avoided with the kids), a lovely bookstore and many more shops and boutiques. Just so happens to be connected to a Raddison hotel too for ultra convenience. However, my favorite part of the mall? The Hard Rock Cafe. And pretty soon, a Hard Rock Cafe Hotel! That is one opening in December...hmmm. Maybe by my birthday I'll be back. :)
-Lita
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