Price of Nescafe Clasico

I am back in the states for a couple of weeks and brought along my 200 g jar of Nescafe Clasico instant coffee. This morning I ran out.

I noticed the price sticker from the Mom and Pop corner store where I bought it in Veracruz was still there, and the price was $49.50 pesos. So, this morning I went by the local Walmart store here in the US looking for some more Nescafe Clasico or similar, not expecting much.

Lo and behold, I found the same 200 g jar of Nescafe Clasico with a label in English. I expected the price to be around $5.50 US and was surprised to find the price was US $4.38 or about $48 pesos. I almost bought 2 jars!

At the same time, I am wondering if anyone is in Mexico right now and the next time you go to Walmart check the price of Nescafe Clasico in Mexico.

I realize the mom and pops in Mexico add on a couple of pesos for their own profit, but I am curious to see how well NAFTA is working, or is Nescafe dumping on the US market? Whatever is happening, it's working out for my own benefit.

John

Can't vouch for Wal-Mart price but just bought a Nescafe Clasico 200g at Mega a few days ago.. was 43 pesos..

I have a jar I bought at Wal-Mart Puerto Vallarta in February and it was 43 pesos, in San Mateo, California is is usually between $3.50 and $4.00 ....good tequila and Presidente Brandy are cheaper up here then in Mexico also....A 1 liter bottle of brandy sells for $7.99, in Mexico for a 960ML bottle it was 99 pesos....go figure

NAFTA is working very well for the U.S. Just ask the Mexican small farmers and maquiladora workers, for example.

______________________
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
~Emiliano Zapata

We buy very large, approx liter sized Nescafes in twin paks at Costco. I don't tecall the price.

By the way, one, at least, of the Mom and Pop tiendas in Pátzcuaro buys part of its stock at Costco and Sam's Club, for resale. (That's what those wholesale clubs were set up for; to supply small businesses.) Most of the aforementioned goods are luxury items (Gringo needs), such as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Hershey's Cocoa, etc.

NAFTA works well for whom? Is this 21st century globalism or 18th century mercantilism we're talking about here. Exporting raw materials (and agricultural products) to be re-imported as higher priced luxury goods doesn't sound like NAFTA is working very well (except for Nestlé).

Think Sorianas is usually around $42-43

RichTX1 - I guess the snear was missed without the vocals. NAFTA isn't good for anyone, except rich people. Sorry for the judgement on the U.S. folks - there are rotten, greedy people everywhere, and I know lots of you are paying the price too. Many of your jobs have gone south while the fat cat corporates get fatter.

What to do? Stop shopping at Wal-Marts & Costcos - we all want cheap prices, but someone is always paying a heavy toll for us.

______________________
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
~Emiliano Zapata

When you are living on a limited income, you look for the cheapest prices. Only those are priveleged enough to have the money to spend have a conscience about such things as Walmart and Costco.

John

Well, you know how the construction business is, either feast or famine. When it was famine time around the house I used to shop a lot at Walmart, but I like Soriana, and Comercial Mexicana, too.

John

Hummingbirdie -- I caught the sneer in your ... voice? typing? We're in agreement here. That's not to say WalMart shoppers are evil or bad (I've shopped there myself on occasion), but that the "system" itself is nothing new, and just an old form of exploitation under a new and fancy brand name.

RichTx1, talk about exploitation, the mom and pop stores in Veracruz add 6.5 pesos to a product that cost them $43 pesos.

Plus these little stores loan money to the poor people in the neighborhood at 10% PER MONTH interest. Before the gringo upper class "educated" do gooders begin to criticize, you need to do your homework in the field and find out who the real exploited are.

John

RJ_1, #13, Well, the way I calculate it, 6.5 pesos profit on a sale of a 49.5 peso item amouts to a 13% gross profit margin. I don't know of ANY U.S. merchant that could sell his goods at a 13% gross profit margin and even remain in business! That's REALITY! PS - I was in retail trade for 50 years before moving to México and now I'm in retail trade in México and I guarantee you that I could NOT remain in business with a gross profit margin that low!

mazgringo, thanks for the clarification. I didn't know.

John

personally, i think anyone who drinks no es cafe doesn't deserve a reply. mike, i'm astonished! smiles for miles, edward

Just to save MX$1.50 (each) you're going to lug back two jars of instant coffee? Maybe I'm missing something in this discussion, but that seems a very odd, and codo thing to do; we're going to send you to Monterrey!

LOL #16, that's been my thought reading this thread - I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who lives by the Nescafe No-es-cafe motto. It will suffice when there is nothing else around by I can't imagine people buying it because they like it. Two giant jars of it? blech, you can get 500g of great ground coffee, straight from Veracruz or Chiapas for around 50 pesos - I even bought a kilo for 42 pesos of excellent beans not too long ago. That said in Mexico I was a mercado and tiendita shopper 98% of the time, and no I was not wealthy, a grad student on a limited income, but really worrying about a 6 peso difference? Superama was for cheddar cheese only.

Ednlyn, NoEsCafé is a drug. I am a NoESCafe druggie. Some people smoke cigarettes for the drugs in them; I drink NoEsCafé for the caffeine rush. The best part is opening the seal on a new jar and inhallng the brief rush of aromatic gas. It always reminds me of diesel buses exhausts, and of México City. I don't always have time to wait for the Chiapas Café Tostado Oscuro to drip. Así es.
But today, I'm drinking the good stuff.

By the way, a café con leche made with Nescafé is not to sneered at. Also, I'd rather get a cup of hot water and a jar of Nescafé in some ordinary restaurant than poorly made drip or espresso coffee. (I could name at least one in Pátzcuaro where the brewed coffee tastes like rusty water. Others taste like "agua de calcetín".
By the way, some of the best coffee in Pátzcuaro, non-espresso type, is at the Hotel Mesón de San Antonio, but it's only served to guests.

I could start a new thread rating Pátzcuaro's coffee houses and products, and after that, continue my ratings of sanitarios/baños públicos; which would be entirely logical.

10....... The best part is opening the seal on a new jar and inhallng the brief rush of aromatic gas...

and I thought it was only me who enjoyed this!!

I must admit.. thru the week I am also a Nescafe drinker, but on weekends (for change of pace) I like to run some beans thru my grinder and make a fresh pot..... dem beans smell pretty good too!

Anonimo is right. A cafe con leche made with Nescafe Clasico isn't bad. I had one at a hut in the boonies near the Pemex pipeline pumping station I was visiting near Matias Romero, Oaxaca.

At first I didn't like Nescafe, but when I was a road warrior travelling to the mines in northern mexico, staying in different hotels each night, I knew the restaurants barely opened at 7AM, I didn't want to wait around for the first morning coffee.

So, I brought along my own jar, a coffee cup from home, some sugar, and a little heater coil so I could enjoy my first coffee without getting up, showering, and getting dressed and going downstairs to the sleepy restaurant. Sometimes you have to wait another 20 minutes while they finish making the coffee.

Later I left the sugar and the heater coil at home deciding that if I was going to go to some rough places in the outback, I'd have to learn to enjoy Nescafe with room temperature water. At first it wasn't pleasant, but it was better than nothing.

Sure, I enjoy the coffee at Becari, and the Cafe Andrade in Veracruz, but if I have a dependence on drinking only good quality coffee, it really limits the places I can go.

If you can drink Nescafe Clasico made with room temperature water, you are freer than the rest of the tourists who can't stray far from the beaches and the better restaurants, and don't come close to the real Mexico that I have come to know and enjoy.

At least that's been my experience.

John

I'm guessing that folks didn't mean they were going to drag food home on the plane to save a few pennies, but were commenting on food price comparisons. For me, I was surprised to see bananas at Mega in Playa del Carmen at the same price as in Minnesota.

It's not a question of saving pennies but lack of availabilty of Nescafe in the local stores in the states.

John

md2020, you are right, I guess a spoonful of the stuff with a sugar chaser is for the real hard core traveller, and not for those tea sippers who don´t venture 2 blocks back into town from the beach.

Did you find any mahogany logs with figures? I also imagine the straight coffee helped with gnats and kept the mosca chiclera flies from biting.

John

RJ 1 has a sly sense of humor that I was unaware of until now.

Jeez, if straigt Nescafe will ward off las moscas chicleras (and maybe los mosquitos, los bobitos y las chinches) I'll have to switch from my El Marino Gourmet Line Oaxaca (Export roast NOT Oaxaca Pluma) to Nescafe clasico.

Mexico has some really good coffee and there is no need to drink that wretched nescafe. UGH!

paty, at first Nescafe Clasico wasn't pleasant, but sometimes I go to places where Nescafe Clasico is the only brand of coffee in town.

If you stay close to the beach and don´t venture more than 2 blocks back from the main streets, you can probably find a better grade of coffee, but you won't find any figured mahogany logs.

John

John, do you think that the Nescafe you bought in the USA the same formula that's sold in Mexico, or do you taste a difference? I'm wondering if, like with some other food products, the strength, etc., is different (catering to a different marketplace). I know that some people curl their noses at the thought of using instant coffee so frequently, but, as we've seen with some other products . . . drinking Nescafe is a part of the real Mexico.

I thought I put coffee like that behind me in 1964. When I found it the only thing served in some places in Mexico I switched to MEXICAN coca cola in the old green bottle as my breakfast drink. I buy Mexican coffee in the bean and grind it myself and brew it. I load up in Merida at the coffee places there - beans in the bag en grano I think it is called. Playa del Carmen has two Starbucks now but that is vile stuff too. Once in Mexico I ordered a cafe con kalua and got cup of hot water, jar of nescafe, spoon and shot glass full of kalua. I drank the kalua and sent the rest back.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Nescafe with room temp water is for pansies. When we used to go far back into the bosque looking for figured mahogany logs we used to eat a spoonful of the stuff followed by a teaspoon of sugar as a chaser.<hr></blockquote>

Pansy! :-) I usually tried to at least put enough water in it to semi dissolve the stuff.

Maybe we should start another thread on "you're really a Mexile when you... eat dry Nescafé, etc."

I'm just stunned that anyone still drinks Nescafe....and in Mexico yet!

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I'm just stunned that anyone still drinks Nescafe....and in Mexico yet!
<hr></blockquote>
The Mexicans do.

longford, the Nescafe I bought yesterday is the same stuff you buy in Mexico. On the label it says, "100% hecho en Mexico" distributed by Nestle, U.S.A...Glendale, CA.

paty, I used to go through all that mess making "real" coffee, but found I have too much to do in the mornings to waste all that time in Mexico. Sure it tastes better, but Nescafe Clasico gets the job done in a hurry and I can get my day going without having to worry with the messy coffee grounds at the end of the day. I have too many interesting people to meet and too many places to go to spend my time making coffee. I don't have a housekeeper who makes it for me. I guess that's the problem.

When in Mexico, the best way to learn about the country is to live like the Mexicans. Although I have to admit it took me several years to discover why they like Nescafe, and now it's no big deal. Except for when I can't get it in the States. I always have a 200 g jar with me on trips to the jungle or to Houston.

John

What clean up? i take a little paper filter and throw in the trash can. My grounds are in the filter and in one quick toss clean up over. I enjoy Mexico with good coffee and no hay well then a coke.

paty, you are right about having a coke for breakfast. It's a fine touch to breakfast I learned in Mexico, too.

John

yes but only from the green glass bottle. The stuff in the cans is not the same.

paty, you are right about the coke in the glass bottles tasting better, but the Classic Coke in the red can is good, too. Or in a plastic bag with a straw if you are in a hurry. You know, in Mexico they can teach you how to live well on just about any level.

John

no matter where I go: Latin America, Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, Turkey... Nescafe and Lipton rear their ugly heads... with the most awesome coffee in Laos, Costa Rica, etc. people are still conditioned to drink that mass produced chemical shit... I hope it has something in it to stunt fertility.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>When in Mexico, the best way to learn about the country is to live like the Mexicans. <hr></blockquote>
John, I remember when rollyb posted one of his great features of Doña Marta's (or is it Martha?) cooking and someone took issue with the food she'd prepared, or the way she prepared it . . . claiming it wasn't the real Mexico - real Mexicans it was said didn't eat that or cook that way. I got a good laugh out of that, because it seems that so many people (foreigners) have a Hollywood-ish view of Mexico and what it and Mexicans are . . . and if what they see (even in Mexico) doesn't fit that image, it isn't the real Mexico. Mexicans clearly have a choice as to what coffee they drink, and, as we're discussing here . . . many crave Nescafe, and that craving is part of the real Mexico - no matter the protests of some foreigners.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>many crave Nescafe, and that craving is part of the real Mexico<hr></blockquote>

It's not a craving, it's what's available. It has a lot more to do with the mysteries of international marketing and the weird situation you find in most agricultural commodies nations where the processed -- and reimported -- end product is often easier to find than the "real deal." And, agricultural policies and politics distort the market.

And, it's a basic law of economics everywhere that an inferior, but mass produced, product will drive the superior product out of the mass market. It's why people buy Chevrolets (or Tsurus) and not Rolls-Royces or Hispano-Suizas. Or drink No-es-café and not Gomez Blend #1.

Basically what your saying is price and availability are the important factors, and not so much the good taste of the individual?

John

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>It has a lot more to do with the mysteries of international marketing . . . <hr></blockquote>

Right back to NAFTA!!!

______________________
It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.
~Emiliano Zapapta

John, maybe you've seen this too . . . when someone in Mexico walks into a restaurant where brewed coffee is available . . . and then they ask for Nescafe. I've seen it, often. Price will nudge people in the direction of the least expensive product . . . or be the determining factor for some/many, but when there's little or no difference in price some people still choose one product over another . . . and that's called "preference." As for someone blaming NAFTA for Mexico's economic problems: it's time for Mexico to own-up to some of its bad national economic policy/planning which has contributed significantly to the plight of farmers and others in its ag industry.

longford, some of the fresh brewed stuff at many of the hotels I've stayed at is not all that good, yet Nescafe Clasico is better, if not more dependable. You know what you are getting, and once you get used to it, it's not bad.

Someone in the coffee country once told me that you gringos put all the trash and leftovers in your instant coffee, but here in Mexico, we make ours with better quality than the average gringo instant coffee. You can smell the quality in the rich aroma when you open the jar.

John

Dont kid yourself -you are investing in mediocrity. Anything, even Nescafe tastes better than a shitty cup of coffee - and that part about developing a taste, well I've heard folks acquiring a taste for their own urine out there... (no offense to urine drinkers)

So, then . . . a bad cup of freshly brewed coffee is preferable to what someone thinks is a good cup of Nescafe? Who's the Chief Judge of the Coffee Court who decides what's mediocrity and what's not? Save us from those who choose to decide for others, under the guise of protecting the masses.

longford, I'm the chief judge. I vote with my money or my feet.

John

Exactly.

This has been a great topic.
As for me, I drink what suits the moment. I'm making neither a political nor a fashion statement by my tastes in coffee.

I like good coffee. I didnt know that was or could be political or a fashion statment. Nescafe is too weak and tasteless and Starbucks too strong and a tad bitter. Coke in plastic bag with straw was one of the first things I learned how to do in Mexico. Saves paying a deposit on the green glass bottle.

"yet Nescafe Clasico is better, if not more dependable. You know what you are getting, and once you get used to it, it's not bad." yum, just like macdonalds. for those wimps who eat it with a chaser of agua a tiempo...you really oughta try mainlining the shit. NOW THAT'S A RUSH!!!! edward. mike, well said. only you could make drinking crap an existencial experience. you are the man in patzcuaro.

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<hr>I didnt know that was or could be political or a fashion statment.<hr></blockquote>

You haven't met the Austin "hipsters" that descend upon Marfa :-)

In the "real Mexico" and in the "real Texas" (and "real anywhere") people buy what's at the market. Sure, I could pay 15 bucks a pound for "real" coffee, but for everyday use, I'm gonna buy Safeway brand.

Nescafé is what's available in the Mexican markets at a semi-affordable price. It's not JUST Nafta, but goes back for centuries the fact that inferior glop is returned to the commodity producer in return for the raw material.

I was thinking back trying to remember the best cup of coffee I'd ever had.

One time, I went with a small group of people 2 days down the Usumacinta river in a motor driven canoe from Sayache, Guatemala down into the jungles of Mexico to explore some out of the way ruins.

The first night we arrived at the juncture of the Rio de la Pasion and the Usumacinta and camped high on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the two rivers. People had told us you can see 3-4 foot long fresh water silver tarpon rolling in the current, so we decided to get up early to watch for them.

We spent the first warm humid night in hammocks and mosquito nets in a vacant palapa that belonged one of the campesinos in the jungle. The mosquito nets were for the dreaded colmoyote, or chicle fly, that is a kind of human screw worm fly.

In the cool early morning, the motorman's assistant started a fire to heat coffee in water brought up from the river, and offered each of us a cup of coffee in plastic cup. It was Nescafe Clasico, and during the week we spent in the jungle, I think that was the best coffee I'd ever had.

John

After a consensus of my fellow colleagues:
2 Philippinos, 1 Swiss (German), 2 Arabs, 2 Indian, 1 Russian, and 1 American (me) - All professionals with at least graduate level education, only the Philippinos preferred Nescafe so you sir ARE deemed tasteless and lacking in class. Incidently the Swiss guy was deeply offended at the notion.

Incidently, even with all the great tea around here the Pakistanis and Indian laborers consume tons of Lipton Yellow Label (stems and debris) because it is crammed down their throats at rock bottom prices....

Lipton Yellow Label; now THAT sucks!

akirahkan, it sounds like your fellow colleagues have never tasted Nescafe Clasico on a trip to Mexico. I distrust a survey of over educated tea sippers to dictate their coffee tastes to me. They need to get out of the library in the field where the people live. Sounds like the Pakistanis and Indian laborers have other things to spend their money on, other than expense tastes.

John

I dislike all tea too. You can have your nescafe. I just like a nice cup of coffee and if not available well then a nice green bottled Mexican coke. And I still dont understand coffee being political or a fashion statement. It is a normal drink.

Classico tastes good even in Canada (but not as good as in Mexico), when the wife is still sleeping, and I am desperate.

Paty, I have read that everything is political. I suppose that's true if you are politically minded. As for fashion, I pay no attention to it, and I guess it's of no importance to you. So, when I'm impatient, I drink Nescagué, and when I'm patient, I grind the beans fresh and brew "Real Coffee". See my sig motto:

I just love a good cup of coffee but someone else needs to grind the beans. Which someone is doing to the whole bag I just dragged back from Yucatan.

Paty - Invest in a Capresso - it'll bring you countless mornings of joy for the rest of your life - it comes with a lifetime guarantee. I LOVE this coffee pot - when I lived in an apartment it was the only reason I could think of for getting renter's insurance for any of my belongings.

Capresso Coffee Team S

Where,s DoDi, some one ought to tell her about this thread.