Shopping in Uruguay

If you are an immigrant to this wonderful country, chances are you will find shopping here different from your home country.  Immediately, you’ll find yourself using money you’ve never seen before, and you’ll have no clue what each coin and bill is worth. Here are a few coins:

From left to right, you can see 5 peso coins, 2 peso coins, and one peso coins, fronts and backs. If you’re like me and can’t see, then you can tell the coins apart by the size. However, while under pressure, this might get tough, especially while you are new here. When I arrived, I had to lift up my glasses and stare at each coin for an embarrassingly long time before I got the feel of the coins. The easiest coin to see and feel is the ten-peso coin. I don’t happen to have one on me now. These are the only coins with a silver-colored ring around them. So they look like donuts. Sort of. These are also larger than five peso coins.

We also have 50 peso coins. These are worth a fair amount, so don’t mix them up with your 5 peso coins. You can tell a 50 by its color and size. These are coppery-colored and won’t fit into a tiny change purse so easily. I don’t see them often, though.

We have a variety of bills here. The most common is the 100 peso bill:

I am not sure if the color is accurate, but I believe on my screen it is showing up the right color. It’s pinkish. We do have green money here, these are the 20 peso bills:

 

Note that I photoed these looking crumply and folded. This is in case someone decides to make fake money out of these. But I have a hint: They’re not worth getting into trouble over! The 20 isn’t even worth a US dollar, and the 100 is worth not much over 3 dollars. When I arrived here, the 100 peso bill was worth close to five dollars, but this has steadily been changing. The market is unpredictable. Who knows what will happen?

We do have larger bills. There are 50’s, 200’s, 500’s, and 1000’s. We also have 2,000 peso bills. These are usually “crispy” and new-looking. You might use them to pay a large bill. but please, don’t use anything larger than 100 on the bus!

It will take time. You’ll curse yourself for accidentally dropping and losing a 20 peso bill, only to realize it’s not worth fussing over too much. You might think a one-peso coin is like a penny, but it’s worth a lot more. So actually, we do have “penny candy” here.

A ten-peso coin might buy you one thing. A small candy bar, some types of gum, a manzana (apple), and other fruits and veggies. For a while, a single egg was maybe 9 pesos. Don’t be surprised if from day to day, prices vary drastically, or from store to store.

The tourist books tell you about the fancy department stores, and the ferias. What they don’t tell you is that all over the place we have tiny mercaditos that offer terrific bargains. Unlike the convenience stores in the States that jack up prices in exchange for of course convenience, our mercaditos are family-run businesses that serve local people. The prices can be feria-cheap. Sometimes.

When I came, I thought “Autoservice” meant a car repair place. Nope. It’s a mercadito. Another word is almacen.  You might see their latest bargain prices listed out front. Don’t pay department store prices! Some of these marcaditos accept credit and debit cards. The department stores are for buying those things that are a big deal, like furniture or fancy appliances, or clothes. I’d say some department store clothes prices are about the same as feria prices, surprisingly. The department store veggie prices are extremey expensive, although many say they’d rather purchase meat there since it might be fresher.

There are specialty stores as well. A panaderia is bakery. The word “pan” means bread. A carcineria is a meat store. These generally sell fresh meat, fresh poultry, and just about any cut of anything you can think of. Look for the sales. One store I go to sells meat for “mascatas.” This means pets, but it’s real meat, not some canned stuff. very cheap. I would tend to trust anything from a carcineria over feria meat, especially in the hotter months. The supermercados (department stores, other name might be hipermercado) also sell meat. You can buy it packaged for you or you can take a number and wait in line to order specially. You will also find cold cuts and a variety of cheeses.

When I first came here, I was shy to order over the counter. I didn’t know what to say, or how to properly pronounce what I wanted. Now, I’m not shy anymore. I just walk up and ask. Be forewarned, though, you need to know your metric! A quarter kilo is roughly half a pound. If you ask for two or more kilos of something, you’re getting the party size.

A stationary store is a papelaria, and a hardware store is a ferretaria. I highly doubt they sell ferrets at ferretarias.  A cerrajeria is a locksmith, and a libraria is a bookstore. The word libro means book. If something is offered “gratis” it’s free or a bonus. Precio bajo means low price, but it might not be!  Often, a panaderia is also a rotisseria. I hope I spelled that right.

Very quickly, you’ll need to know your Spanish numbers. You’ll also want to know days of the week, and how to tell time in 24 hour version. Learn the colors, too, and the names of the months.

If you want to say, “Excuse me” while shopping, you say “permiso,” or, “permis.” I had the hardest time remembering this word, but it’s so important to know it. You’ll hear the word más a lot. This means “more.” If the cashier asks you a question with that word in it, it means, “Do you want more?” I think they’re trained to ask that! Just say yes (si) or no (no).

If you want to use a charge card, that’s a tarjeta. Tar-HET-a. When it’s time to pay, and you are paying with a tarjeta, you’ll need to present your ID. If the store personnel know you real well, you won’t have to show it anymore. Many stores will accept photocopies of passports, but others won’t, so if you’re going someplace new, bring the original.

You’ll be handed a slip where you sign. It will ask for your signature (firma) and your ID number, the number of either your passport of cedula. This is called your documento. When asked for your documento, they usually want for you to write down the number. Other times, they want to see the actual documento. Sometimes, you’ll be asked for your local phone number as well.

If you don’t memorize anything else, memorize your phone number and documento number. It’s awkward to have to look these up on the spot. Don’t give these out to just anyone, please.

Some Spanish words fool us. If someone asks you if you have a pregunta, they’re not asking if you’re pregnant, but if you have a question.

If you’re really up shit’s creek with the Spanish, shake your head and mumble something vague. Act stupid. Someone is going to figure out rather quickly that you are a foreigner.  Don’t worry, they aren’t hostile to foreigners here. We bring in tourist money, so we are welcomed. Tourism is Uruguay’s largest source of income.

Here is a mercadito:

That’s a sort of larger one. Many are much smaller, barely the size of a bedroom. We also have teensy ones called “Kiosks” which are the size of a booth or closet. You would be amazed at how much stuff those tiny kiosks sell.