Chile Forum

Farmacia Austral in Chaiten has a monopoly because it is the only farmacia within three hours of Futa. Even so, always wanting to "buy local", and thinking they would be happy for the $3000 USD business our medication needs would bring in a year, I set it up so that we would buy x-amount of the medication each month and they would send it on the bus to Futa.

1st order: 32,000 CLP per box of tablets
2nd order one month later: 39,000 CLP per box
Last, and FINAL order one month later: 49,800 CLP per box!

3 boxes for a months supply...and we've gone from 96,000 to 149,000 in just a few months, for the exact same order. Had a friend check in Temuco for prices. Still approx. 32,000 in Temuco, so I can surmise I'm getting the Gringo Gouge for a medicine that someone cannot live without! Guess who's not getting my business anymore.

Vicki
(and a big thanks to the friend who has arranged for the purchase of the meds, and shipping!)

What did Tomas say the saying is about gringos, a hundred dollar bill without legs. Easy pickings. I can just imagine what the next price would have been. The 64,000 peso question.

mlightheart wrote:What did Tomas say the saying is about gringos, a hundred dollar bill without legs. Easy pickings. I can just imagine what the next price would have been. The 64,000 peso question.

Exactly! The second price increase was suspect, and should have been something I paid attention to. DUHHHH. The third time, hit hard because I had no other resource, or so I thought. They just called to tell me I have an 11,000 peso credit. I told them to send me a fricking Q-tip and two band-aides. Well, if I spoke Spanish well enough, I would have.



Vicki (with a big fat SUCKER tatoo on her forehead)

With needed medications they kinda have you at a disadvantage, and typically Chilean they over-play it. The greed is amazing in this country, never seen anything like it, even in Mexico.

Yep. Gringos are singled out but If its any consolation and I doubt it is, Chileans also are getting raped. eVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE TWICE WHAT IT SHOULD COST IN THIS COUNTRY. tHANK THE customs OLIGARCHY and the 24% mark-up. The retailers just pass it on and add a bit to it , to make a profit. Therefore the absurd prices. As a gringo the perception is you are rich, so the built in smash and grab.

I know you wont believe it but i ll get a photo, I saw $100 hair dryers in Vina stores. The plain old made in China cost 2 dollars to make, sell for 12 bux in Walmart blow dryers. No name average blow dryers, $100 hundred dollars. Maybe thats why I see so many women with wet hair on the bus in the morning? Just a random example.

Chileans are sheep getting shorn by the rich families that control this lemonade stand.

MuahhhaaaaaHAHA!!!


Or you can buy this at RYPLEY for a "normal" Price of $10.990 but if you like using the benefits and convenience of shopping from your own home, you can pay $123.610
and better yet you can finance it in 12 easy payments of $12,567.00 for a grand total of $150,804.....
Here:

http://www.ripley.cl/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10051&productId=252182&langId=-1

Wow, rip off is right in medicines.

I just analyzed the price per (x)mg for Dexan which is better known as Sudafed in the States.

I used full retail price like you would pay at a 24 hour drugstore in the States and came up with this comparison:

SalcoBrand per 60 mg = 82.7 ¢
Sudafed full retail price in the States per 60 mg = 38 ¢
Drugstore.com price for same Sudafed product = 33.3 ¢

This is outrageous in a country where the minimum wage is 144000 pesos.

I will report on Dr. Simi's price (for a generic) in the coming days. Dr Simi is the Mexican chain that has supposedly broken the pharmaceutical market monopoly in Chile.

Well, I do feel a bit better! I've seen a similar hair dryer HERE IN FUTA for 18,000 pesos! The bottom line is that I can voice my dissatisfaction by not buying at a place anymore. That famacia was set to get over $3,000 USD in business from us per year. Now, oops! Nada. And I think next time I'm there in Chaiten, I will pop in and mention that to them.

The difference here, that I've noticed, is that if you wave your hands and say "no thanks, too much" they don't offer you something for even a little less. In Panama, when I did that, I got the REAL price. Wonder why it's that way here.

I have to say that this is the FIRST time this has happened here. I priced all my stuff for my house in Santiago (wood stove, gas stove, washer, fridge gas heater, etc) and calculated the shipping to Futa. Then I went into a little hardware store here and asked for a price. It was not more than 15,000 pesos more than it would have cost me to order from "up north" and ship down. And, I figured 15,000 pesos was well worth me not having to coordinate the whole fiasco! I thought that was a pretty decent deal.

Vicki

Yeah, I saw a Dr. Simi (however you spell it) store in Santiago. Anyone know if they have a website?

Vicki

I searched and searched and could not find a Chile Dr. Simi website. Only articles in the local press and websites where users posted location info.

Now that I see all this grousing about “gringos” being gouged, do you think that if you spoke the language well enough, you would do better in Chile?

El Zorro, no doubt whatsoever! I attribute most of my bad experiences in my travels to my language ineptness. Absolutely no doubt, and I thank you for bringing that up. Almost all of my frustrations, goof-ups and other foibles have been due to my poor language skills.

Vicki

Still, no excuse for the financial gouging I received. Even if they tacked on a couple thou pesos for their trouble, it doesn't add up. But again, yes.

Vicki

Also Zorro, I think this is a very good point. I watched people in a couple of other countries, who didn't even know how to say "How are you?" in Spanish, who did nothing but bitch about their new host country. Go to any on of a number of gringo groups for other Central American countries and all they do is bitch about how nothing is like back home, bad experiences, all the while they spend all their time with other gringos, and never once make an effort to learn their new countries culture or language. One wonders, Why the hell they moved there in the first place!

So, this is a great side-subject, learning the language and customs. I'm pretty good at immersing myself into the culture...the language is coming much slower. So everytime I missed a bus because I thought they said 2:30, when they said 12:30, or when I got a kiss instead of a glass (just kidding about that one) I chocked it up to my lack of decent Spanish.

Vicki

I have to ask because I plan to go and live in Chile, and this seems to be a critical detail, although I’m not sure if my accent will be appreciated there. I grew up on the other side of the Andes. Well... I guess I’ll just have to fake it.

Still far from being fluent in idioma chileno here but I've gotten by fine. If you have a native with you, the chances of being gouged is greatly reduced. If this native happens to be your polola, pareja or esposa they have even more incentive to make sure that you are not being taken advantage of. Also, it might even work out better than if you were just a solo native because you can then play good cop, bad cop (I believe Charles has mentioned this). Blending in and not opening your mouth unless absolutely necessary works well most of the time. One time at a small market in this primarily working class community I overheard the owner talking to another native speculating that perhaps I was a chino peruano or

Salud