Given the influx of Chileans in the wholesalers of Mendoza, they imposed new restrictions for purchases

More than 5 thousand Chileans visit Mendoza every day to shop in supermarkets. Driven by the exchange rate and the value of the dollar, thousands of tourists cross the border between Santiago de Chile and the province every day for shopping tours. Wholesalers and hypermarkets also took new measures in the face of the number of foreigners who attend the premises to stock up on products. You can see long lines of cars with Chilean license plates to enter the wholesalers. This has already become a common postcard in Mendoza. Faced with this, the shopping centers established certain schedules for Chilean tourists and another for Argentines. Many of the visitors highlight the difference in prices in food and personal hygiene. “Chile is expensive especially in the food sector, it is convenient to come to Argentina,” said one of the Chilean tourists before entering a wholesaler. Approximately 300 dollars is the amount allowed per person that can pass in merchandise to Chile. “I carry a lot of oil, there in Chile is triple. Tea in Chile would cost more than $3. All this is almost triple in Chile,” said a tourist as she carried a shopping cart full of boxes of oil, toilet paper and soap powder. The young woman said she traveled especially to Mendoza to do a shopping tour. “With this we save a lot, we come only one day and we lower costs. I stayed in a hotel just to sleep one night and then we left,” he added. Chileans can buy in wholesale supermarkets at certain times. In the case of the Oscar David hypermarket, the flood of Chileans led them to limit the hours of operation of foreign tourists so as not to affect their usual Mendoza customers. According to Rubén David, manager of the wholesaler Oscar David, in statements to Clarín, he points out that there is no shortage and that the empty gondolas are due to the fact that they cannot cope with their replacement. As of this week, the wholesaler serves buyers with foreign ID, between 7 and 14 hours, while Mendoza residents are served in a wider strip, between 7 and 19 hours. Another fact that draws attention is that foreigners do not come only on weekends. “Every day we have customers from Chile and groups on shopping tours,” said David, who explained that since March there has been a flood of Chileans, who mostly buy yerba that is more expensive there, olive oil, dulce de leche and alfajores, among others. They also stock up on medicines and perfumery and cleaning products, such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and soaps.

Original source in Spanish