Shopping in Mexico looks a little different then it does in the United States. After this
video you'll know exactly where I buy my food and other common everyday items, while living
in Querétaro, Mexico. For the best advice about moving to Mexico,
subscribe to my channel and hit the bell to be notified when I upload a new episode every
Thursday. Hi. I'm Alex and I'm an American expat living
in Querétaro, Mexico. If you're new to my channel, welcome, and if you've been here
before, welcome back. A few weeks ago, I published a Day in the
Life vlog and asked you what kind of content you'd be interested in seeing on my channel.
One of my subscribers, hi Debra, said that she'd be curious to see where I do my shopping,
where I buy my groceries and other everyday items while living in Mexico. I thought that
was a great idea. I really appreciate the feedback.
Today I'm taking you around to show you where I do my shopping in Mexico. I should note,
though, that my shopping habits have changed a little bit since the pandemic started. Prior
to COVID-19, I was going to Mercado La Cruz a couple times a week. I was taking Uber trips
out to Walmart, but since the pandemic, I've really tried to keep my shopping closer to
home. Walmart and Mercado La Cruz, those places are still open. I just haven't been back to
them yet. Let's go. I am about to run into the department store
behind me. Now this store is called Soul, but I like to run into this store for toiletries
mostly, shampoo, conditioner. Today I've got to get some Q-tips. One thing that I really
like about this store, aside from its amazing selection of products, is that you can see
that they are really taking the pandemic seriously. You have to have a temperature check when
you walk in the door, all of the employees are wearing face shields. There's a mat to
sanitize your feet. It is a hot one here in Queretaro today. I
literally just walked back into the house. I wasn't able to film on my way home, just
because I totally forgot to bring a reusable shopping bag. Now here in Queretaro, this
happened pretty soon after we moved here, but the city outlawed plastic bags. So I was
carrying all my stuff home, all my shampoo, conditioner, everything like that in my arms.
So you saw I bought the shampoo and the conditioner. I also bought a pack of razors, some Q-tips,
like I said, and this little pitcher for iced coffee.
So this little store is right around the corner from our house, and it has been an absolute
lifesaver during the pandemic. I don't know how we would have gotten through the last
few months without it. We buy our eggs here. We buy our beer here, and even more importantly
than the beer, we buy our water here. So every few days Taylor will come to the corner store
and purchase a new garrafon, which is a five gallon jug of water.
So I touched on earlier, prior to the pandemic, we were buying the majority of our produce
from Mercado La Cruz. But since COVID-19, we have been using a produce home delivery
service to get our fresh fruits and veggies. Every single week, we get a PDF via WhatsApp
from the company, from Fresh Go MX, listing all of their fruits and veggies that they
have available. There's also nuts, seeds, recently they added eggs. We go down the list
and make, in notes, our own list of all the fruits and veggies that we want to order.
This is our haul this week. I don't even know if I can lift this basket and it's seriously
so heavy. This week, we got a ton of fresh produce.
So a big basket like this costs around 600 pesos. While I miss shopping at Mercado La
Cruz, this service has been such a time saver for us. Taylor and I have both been so busy
with work and to not have to worry about going down to the market and then only being able
to bring home what we can carry, since we don't have a car, so having to make multiple
trips a week, being able to order one big fruit and veggie haul to last us for five,
six, seven days is just fabulous. So Taylor and I are walking up right now to,
there's no one on the street, to buy some chicken from this guy that is just like right
up the street from our house, super close by, super convenient. So I'll show you the
outside of it. Taylor is going to run in there and buy some chicken.
All right. So what did you get from the chicken place?
Two legs and two thighs.
And how much did it cost?
55 pesos.
Which is about...
Like $3 probably.
Sounds good. To be honest, the majority of the protein that we consume is chicken. I
love the chicken from the [foreign language 00:06:29] down the street from our house because
there are no preservatives. It's super, super fresh. We really can't have it in the fridge
even more than a couple of days or it'll go bad because there is nothing injected in it
to keep it from going bad. But, of course, every once in a while we do want some red
meat, burgers, or meat for a pasta sauce. That's what we did today, in fact. We used
a service called Rappi to order some food delivered to our house, a few items from the
grocery store. We got ground beef, we got wine, we got pasta noodles, but you just use
the app on your phone, and then the Rappi shopper goes to the grocery store that you
select and picks up your items and delivers them to your house
Speaking of items being delivered to your home, I am also a huge fan of Amazon, Mexico.
I pretty much started using Amazon Mexico as soon as we moved to Queretaro, because
I had to furnish this apartment. If you'd like to see how I furnished this apartment,
then check out this video next. I give you a full tour plus discuss the cost of living
expenses in Queretaro. So what does an Amazon Prime membership cost in Mexico? Well, the
price is 899 pesos per year, and I know that is a lot more affordable than Prime in the
United States. While Amazon Mexico doesn't have as big of a selection as Amazon in the
U.S., I've still always been able to find at least a few choices for whatever it is
that I'm looking for. Someone asked me how I decide what I'm going to buy on Amazon Mexico
versus what I buy at a store like Soul or any other department stores here in Queretaro.
The truth is since I don't have a car, when I'm purchasing bigger items, larger items,
I will order those from Amazon Mexico, so I don't have to worry about transporting them
from the store to my house. If for some reason I can't find what I'm looking for on Amazon
Mexico, or if the importation fees are too high, sometimes items will come from the United
States, then I will look on Mercado Libre, which is another website, but all of the items
are already here in Mexico. So I've bought some really cool things, including, most recently,
a small tabletop fire for our patio area outside. There you have it. Now you know where I buy
my food and my other everyday items here in Mexico. If you have any questions about shopping
in Mexico or just living in Mexico in general, then leave them in the comments, and I will
be sure to answer them. I'm Alex from backpackingbrunette.com. Thanks for watching.