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Already is. Prices here had risen drastically in the 8 years I have been a resident. I can live in the USA with the kind of money I spend here. I am paying medical expenses here while paying medicare in the USA. I am ready to go when my house is sold. Our daughter and her husband were here and they were surprise how expensive the place has become since the last time they were here 2 years ago.

Prices are still low if you live like a middle-class Mexican - living in Mexican areas - without heavy doses US conveniences, goods, or services. Skip Costco, Sam's Club, and Home Depot, and live like a Mexican, if living a low-priced lifestyle is your priority. Skip Soriana and shop at a real mercado (flies and all). Stay out of Liverpool and Sears, and hit the tinguis.

This approach lowers costs by 50% to 75%, but it still doesn't help with the programmed monthly increases .

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Prices are still low if you live like a middle-class Mexican - living in Mexican areas - without heavy doses US conveniences, goods, or services. Skip Costco, Sam's Club, and Home Depot, and live like a Mexican, if living a low-priced lifestyle is your priority. Skip Soriana and shop at a real mercado (flies and all). Stay out of Liverpool and Sears, and hit the tinguis.

This approach lowers costs by 50% to 75%, but it still doesn't help with the programmed monthly increases .

I assure you that really 'middle class Mexicans living in Mexican areas' happily shop in all the places you say to avoid. Most middle class Mexicans I know--in Tijuana, Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Morelia, and Mexico City--prefer not to shop at a tianguis; they send their domestic help to do that shopping. Meanwhile, the husband and wife of the family--and sometimes the adolescent kids--are busy using their credit cards at all the name stores you advise staying away from.

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Well folks, let me wrap it into a bumper sticker "current reality sucks" - and to that I'd add, I have a great empathy for the average MXN who must deal with gasoline and other prices rising. I'm not sorry he can't afford a whole pack of cigarettes or a whole case of regular Coke, but the reality of rising prices for gas, CFE and just basic living expenses is hardest on the folks with less.

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LOL, Costco is absolutely packed with middle-class Mexicans particularly on the weekend. The parking lot is full of expensive cars with Mexican plates. So is Sams and WalMart.

Believe me, there aren't near enough expats to keep these places in business, let alone booming the way they are.

I'm all for it. Thanks to our Mexican neighbors in Jalisco, we have the availability of these places as well.

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LOL, Costco is absolutely packed with middle-class Mexicans particularly on the weekend. The parking lot is full of expensive cars with Mexican plates. So is Sams and WalMart.

Believe me, there aren't near enough expats to keep these places in business, let alone booming the way they are.

I'm all for it. Thanks to our Mexican neighbors in Jalisco, we have the availability of these places as well.

Nearly every Mexican shopping in Costco and other major stores IS middle class Mexican. They have nice shiny new or near new cars. I have to drive a 15 year old car. There are so many more middle class Mexicans everywhere compared to 11 years ago even at Lakeside.

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I assure you that really 'middle class Mexicans living in Mexican areas' happily shop in all the places you say to avoid. Most middle class Mexicans I know--in Tijuana, Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Morelia, and Mexico City--prefer not to shop at a tianguis; they send their domestic help to do that shopping. Meanwhile, the husband and wife of the family--and sometimes the adolescent kids--are busy using their credit cards at all the name stores you advise staying away from.

Very true for upper-middle-class white-collar Mexicans, especially the ones aspiring to be or look like ricos. This is partly why Mexico imports about 45% of her food - with people wanting relatively expensive US style shopping versus buying Mexican produced seasonal foods.

Why Middle Class? Ordinary middle class / working class people around the the world are typically very value conscious, so, living like a middle class person generally steers one to modestly priced vendors, talented but economical electricians, plumbers, economical restaurants, and decent value-priced neighborhoods. Repeating the point from above: To live a more modest lower-priced lifestyle, skip Costco, Sam's Club, Sears, and Soriana... (except for produce-Wednesdays).

If we focus on replicating a US or Canadian lifestyle, the prices go up. If we eat local foods in season and buy Mexican products, living costs in Mexico are far below Canadian or US costs of living. If you insist on having high-purity high-pressure water, then you have to buy the hydropneumatico, adapt your plumbing for higher pressures, install filters, install sterilizers, maybe even a water softener, maintain all of that, and use electricity to have a stiff shower versus a gravity-feed tinaco system to shower. You get just as clean either way...

Getting back to the original topic, the programmed gasoline price increases are planned through 2013, so, budget accordingly.

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Very true for upper-middle-class white-collar Mexicans, especially the ones aspiring to be or look like ricos. This is partly why Mexico imports about 45% of her food - with people wanting relatively expensive US style shopping versus buying Mexican produced seasonal foods.

Why Middle Class? Ordinary middle class / working class people around the the world are typically very value conscious, so, living like a middle class person generally steers one to modestly priced vendors, talented but economical electricians, plumbers, economical restaurants, and decent value-priced neighborhoods. Repeating the point from above: To live a more modest lower-priced lifestyle, skip Costco, Sam's Club, Sears, and Soriana... (except for produce-Wednesdays).

If we focus on replicating a US or Canadian lifestyle, the prices go up. If we eat local foods in season and buy Mexican products, living costs in Mexico are far below Canadian or US costs of living. If you insist on having high-purity high-pressure water, then you have to buy the hydropneumatico, adapt your plumbing for higher pressures, install filters, install sterilizers, maybe even a water softener, maintain all of that, and use electricity to have a stiff shower versus a gravity-feed tinaco system to shower. You get just as clean either way...

Getting back to the original topic, the programmed gasoline price increases are planned through 2013, so, budget accordingly.

I am not talking about upper-middle-class Mexicans. I'm talking about regular straight-down-the-middle middle class. Working class--even in the kinds of jobs you describe--is different from middle class, and yes, would be more inclined to shop and eat in the places you mention. And I'm not talking about anyone who wants to replicate a US or Canadian lifestyle--and by that I assume you mean a middle-to-upper-middle-class lifestyle, not a working class or poverty zone lifestyle. I'm talking about your everyday middle-class family, not folks aspiring to be ricos, just folks living their middle-class lives.

Maybe you live at Lake Chapala and your experience is different from mine. Mine is based on where I've lived other than Lake Chapala, and is based on Mexican middle-class friends' experiences in Hermosillo, where I have never lived. I guess we can agree to disagree.

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