The same scene has been repeated for three months on the border between Santiago de Chile and Mendoza. There are lines that reachseveral kilometers and waits of up to five hours at Customs to enter Argentina. The main destination of the trip is shopping tour to super and hypermarkets.
The official data of the Delegation of Migrations in Mendoza showed a record in trans-Andean visitors in April: with 194,345 people entered from Chile, which gives an average daily transit of 6,478.
About 80 percent, an average of 5,180 per day, according to the National Gendarmerie, are Chileans who arrive to buy merchandise, personal hygiene items or cleaning.
In April 2019, prior to the pandemic, the movement from Chile to Mendoza and vice versa was 128,098 people. But at that time there were more Argentines who traveled to Chile than Chileans who came here. In the last month that transit increased by 54 percent compared to 2019, with the addition that the flow of Chileans is now the majority.
Shopping tours are not only in private cars but more and more travel agencies promote the shopping getaway, with lunch and a walk through the hot springs of Cacheuta, before returning to Chile. "We take them to eat delicious and rest after the stress of spending several hours in a supermarket," a Chilean driver told Channel 9 of Mendoza TV.
Lorena Castillo and Rosa Cáceres, from San Felipe, Chile, shopping at a supermarket in Mendoza. Photo: Orlando Pelichotti (Los Andes)
Chileans, mostly middle or lower class people, who need to make a difference with shopping to make a salary, no longer come only on weekends. "Every day we have customers from Chile and collectives on a shopping tour," confirms Rubén David, manager of the wholesaler Oscar David, in Godoy Cruz, Gran Mendoza.
Wholesale businesses have gained fame among Chileans for the numerous reports on Chile TV and posting of influencers traveling to hunt for buying opportunities. "The prices are more than convenient; oil, coffee, salsa, flour, rice, milk and diapers, everything is worth two or three times cheaper than in Santiago," says a Chilean tourist interviewed at the border by Chilean TV.
In the case of the Oscar David hypermarket, the flood of Chileans has led them to take an unprecedented measure: limit the hours of operation of foreign tourists so as not to affect their usual Mendoza customers.
Although the manager assures that there is no shortage and that the empty gondolas are due to the fact that they cannot cope with their replacement, David expressed his concern about the long lines that customers had to make and the discomfort it generated in the usual buyers.
Since this week, buyers with a foreign ID are served between 7 a.m. and 14 p.m., while residents in Mendoza are served between 7 a.m. and 19 p.m. "I think it's a good measure, last week I had to queue for two and a half hours to pay for the number of Chileans there were," says Mercedes, an architect, who buys every month at this wholesaler.
After the constant devaluation of the Argentine peso, Chileans "invade" the supermarkets and wholesalers of Mendoza. Photo: Orlando Pelichotti (Los Andes)
"In March Chileans began to arrive, they buy yerba that is very expensive there, olive oil, dulce de leche, alfajores, everything that reaches them they take," says the manager of the wholesaler David.
He said that in addition to food, Chileans buy medicines and perfumery and cleaning products, such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and soaps. Adrián Alín, president of the Business Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Mendoza, said that sales have increased in perfumeries and pharmacies, due to the demand of visitors from Chile.
Shopping Tour
In May, the bus company Andesmar, which operates the land route Mendoza - Santiago de Chile, began promoting tours to a hypermarket. The bus departs from Santiago de Chile, for a cost of 40,000 Chilean pesos (50 dollars) each way. The proposal covers two days: for example departure on Friday, breakfast included, and return on Saturday.
Passengers have between 6 hours and 8 hours to make purchases, which will depend on the delay at the border. And they can carry as luggage one suitcase in the hold per passenger with a maximum weight of 30 kilograms, plus a backpack or handbag per passenger.
Chileans have available 300 dollars of franchise of purchases abroad, so if they exceed that amount they must pay a tax to the trans-Andean treasury upon their return.
The Chilean authorities control that no purchases are made for commercial purposes. If a person carries whole packs of merchandise, he can be detained at Customs.
Mendoza. Correspondent
PS
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