Restaurant Prices Shooting Up

chico bill

Dogs Better than People
May 6, 2016
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Higher prices - you ain't seen nothin' yet. It's coming.................
 

Gadfly

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Jul 7, 2016
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What’s coming? I don’t understand
Google says 2020 DR inflation rate was 3.2%
thats not too bad. I’m no economist so why are prices in stores rising s much, COVID-19 maybe? supply/demand ?
 

Caonabo

LIFE IS GOOD
Sep 27, 2017
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Did I say all "locals" earn $1-2? The "basic" salary or minimal pay if you weren't aware of that is around 16k$RD/month, but that doesn't apply to the small businesses. So for example those who work at the local colmado might earn less than 10k. But of course just like everywhere else there are people making more. But the majority (more than 50%) having one single full time jobb earn 20k or less/month which is around $330 and thst amounts to around $2 per hour.


Yes prices go up, but not 40%. Because that is a big issue here, the last 20 years. Prices in general have risen several hundreds % on products. 20 years ago you could get 1 pound of rice for like 2 pesos, and now already 30, that is a price increase more than 1500%. But on the contrast the salaries have in best cases only increased to double what they earned 20 years ago. That is what I mean with groceries being overpriced, or rather employees under payed. And I'm just taking into account the prices on national level, as to my understanding national supermarkets don't have local prices, and in Super Pola, La Sirena and Jumbo the price is 135-140 pesos per pound and just in like October you could buy it for less than 100.

I didn't write that restaurants should lower their prices to be accessible to EVERYONE. I'm making a comment about the idea that prices here are "stupid cheap" just because as a foreigner it's cheaper than it is back in your country of origin. So just because a foreigner is ready to pay a certain price, doesn't mean that it's cheap. But I never made any comment about restaurants putting prices...

"And I'm just taking into account the prices on national level, as to my understanding national supermarkets don't have local prices, and in Super Pola, La Sirena and Jumbo the price is 135-140 pesos per pound and just in like October you could buy it for less than 100."

Currently 138.95 per lb of Carne Molida 1er in Jumbo La Romana, and yes, it was 103.15 in October.
 

TropicalPaul

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Sep 3, 2013
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The possibility exists that some people receive menus with one set prices and others receive a menu with a different set of prices.

I did think about that, but we changed tables and the menu was on a QR thing that you had to scan. Just in case I went online and checked the prices and they were the same. And in the restrooms people were complaining at how high the prices were.
 
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Kricke87

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Feb 16, 2021
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And also the INCREDIBLY food supply chain. A couple of days ago I read an article in ListinDiario about the supply chain.
According to my simple-minded brain, the chain would basically be. If a locally produced product: Get the article/item directly from the producer, or maybe from an internal vendor. If imported: get the product from the importer. This to have so few middlemen so that you can get it out to the customer for a lower price.
But according to that article, that is not how it works here.
First, the producers sell it to a company, which then sells it on to another supplier, who then in their turn sells it to another lower supplier who then sells it to the store. So, there are too many intermediates for it to be cheap for the end customer.
 
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Kricke87

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The possibility exists that some people receive menus with one set prices and others receive a menu with a different set of prices. ;)
:ROFLMAO:
That is actually something I've heard has happened in the past. Don't know if it was true (to my knowledge I've never had that issue), but it wouldn't surprise me at least in the past when basically NO restaurant had internet or their own webpage, and still a possibility where they don't advocate their prices online.
 
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rfp

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Jul 5, 2010
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There are many reasons why the price of beef could have gone up. If you cant afford it, buy something else. 100's of millions through all of Latin America go to bed with a dinner of rice and beans with whatever other protein is available.

The poor folks ( who are smart) are stellar at adapting and finding a way to make things work.
 

Caonabo

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Sep 27, 2017
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There are many reasons why the price of beef could have gone up. If you cant afford it, buy something else. 100's of millions through all of Latin America go to bed with a dinner of rice and beans with whatever other protein is available.

The poor folks ( who are smart) are stellar at adapting and finding a way to make things work.

So price gouging is acceptable because people can eat rice and beans if they're hungry?
 

irsav

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Jan 26, 2019
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The possibility exists that some people receive menus with one set prices and others receive a menu with a different set of prices. ;)
:ROFLMAO:
I know it personally. At Tamarind when I order ensalada de pulpo or de lambi myself I am getting one amount of pulpos. When I am with a Dominican person and she orders - I am getting two times more. For the same price.
Same thing happens in the farmers` market in Puerto Plata. And with all coqueros.
 

Yourmaninvegas

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Feb 16, 2016
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100's of millions through all of Latin America go to bed with a dinner of rice and beans with whatever other protein is available.
The poor folks ( who are smart) are stellar at adapting and finding a way to make things work.
That's right ‼️
They take hand outs from rich people who live in the buildings where they work.
They except chump change from people who are above giving to them directly and instead send their kids to do it in order to teach them a lesson.
And they buy local instead of Johnnie Walker.

As a side note, Johnnie Walker Red is on sale right now for less than a 1000 DOP/750 ml at Ole.
And I am enjoying my beans and rice prepared by a young chica I am currently having a late supper with.
Just finding a way to make things work for me.
Cause all my life I been poor.🤑
:ROFLMAO:
 

USA DOC

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Feb 20, 2016
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I was in Baileys in Sosua last week for lunch. 595 for chicken fajitas and 190 for a rum and coke. Taxes and "ley" included. Not bad.
Yes the food in Baileys is good...people watching there is also interesting.........
 

USA DOC

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Feb 20, 2016
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Please educate me what "stupid cheap" means in this country when the basic salary is around 1-2$/hour? Because I can agree that compared to the US and other "western" countries, dining in a restaurant is cheap. A family of 4 can easily dine for around 50$. But then take into account that the "standard" salary is 5-10 times lower than in "western" countries.
Restaurants shouldn't ONLY serve the tourists that come here and the "rich". But it should serve the locals as well, and NOBODY earning a "standard" salary can afford to dine out.

Local groceries are very overpriced and have increased heavily just in the last couple of months. Just take the price of ground beef, which just a couple of months ago could be bought for around 100$RD/pound, now it's around 140. So a 40% increase, in just a couple of months.

So it's not "stupid cheap", if you take into consideration what the price "should" be. But if you earn +$100k/year then yeah it's cheap.
look for the small places that have a el plato del dia..;. for about $125 pesos, thats how many Dominicans dine out...........
 
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Kricke87

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look for the small places that have a el plato del dia..;. for about $125 pesos, thats how many Dominicans dine out...........

Yes I'm very aware of those, as those are the types of places I mostly eat at. But what the OP described in his initial post, it was clearly not meant to be about those types of establishments, as they are not what I would consider "dining out" as they normally might not even have seating or is very limited and mostly only serve lunch. For example, I wouldn't consider a Taco truck "dine out". So in that post, I totally disregarded those. But I agree, based on the fact that groceries aren't cheap, it doesn't make any sense to serve food for that low a price.
 
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JD Jones

Moderator:North Coast,Santo Domingo,SW Coast,Covid
Jan 7, 2016
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Yes I'm very aware of those, as those are the types of places I mostly eat at. But what the OP described in his initial post, it was clearly not meant to be about those types of establishments, as they are not what I would consider "dining out" as they normally might not even have seating or is very limited and mostly only serve lunch. For example, I wouldn't consider a Taco truck "dine out". So in that post, I totally disregarded those. But I agree, based on the fact that groceries aren't cheap, it doesn't make any sense to serve food for that low a price.
Hooooooold on a sec! We were talking about stupid cheap prices, weren't we? Not that it makes sense or not. No fair changing the criteria midstream.

The places I know that prepare a "Plato del dia" have very little overhead and are happy (resigned) to make a
minimum profit. I know more than a few with pretty large fan bases (because I'm surrounded by Free Zones with thousands of employees) and many of them sell 150-200 plates a day of what I think is very good food.
Obviously for low-income folks.

There is a guy who has a colmado down the street from me that sells Juices and Empanadas. He sells them by the hundreds every morning.

Another woman I know started selling pacas from her carport, then bought a 20 ft. trailer box selling clothes, then built a supermarket with a filtered water plant and a small outside bar on the side. And on the second floor of the supermarket? The same clothes she sold from her carport.

All examples of selling cheap and saving their money.
 

VladFridlyand

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Jun 26, 2019
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Boca Chica, DR
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Over the last couple of weeks I've been shocked at how expensive restaurants have become. Today at Bocana Boca Chica, prices were sky high. A Cuba Libre for RD$ 380. Pechuga a la Plancha for just under RD$ 900. A soda for RD$ 200. bocana.menuseguro.com.do in case anyone doesn't believe me. This place used to be cheap and cheerful, I'm pretty sure they have doubled their prices in the last 12 months. Lunch for four adults and a couple kids came in at a few pesos under RD$ 10,000, and it was basic, nothing to write home about. Small portions, nothing fancy.

A little walk down the beach showed that prices are similar in other places. Today's special of pasta carbonara in one place for "just" RD$ 600 plus tax and service so $768 in total. And in Santo Domingo itself it's the same story. A cuba libre for RD$ 300 plus tax and service in Plaza España so RD$ 384 in total. A pizza in the Conde for RD$ 895 plus tax and service, so RD$ 1145 in total.

Can't see that jacking up the prices this high is going to help bring the tourists back.
If we are talking about Boca Chica. Bocana actually has by far not teh best food around and i stopped going there long time ago. I do eat at Da Nancy almost daily and at Pequeina Suiza, i do not think their prices went up in the past 5 months.