SUBTLE COST DIFFERENCES IN ONE BORDER TOWN

By Juan Montoya

Ever notice that prices for things like gasoline or foodstuffs like chicken differ markedly depending on what part of town you're in?

This Christmas season we had the opportunity to go downtown and across the city seeking just the right present for our kid sand relatives and were slightly surprised at how obvious these differences were.

For example, in the downtown area only blocks from the Gateway International Bridge on Elizabeth Street, gas prices hovered around $1.97 (right) while prices for the same gallon of gas along Boca Chica were around $1.82 (left) to $1.89, a difference of a dime or more per gallon.

Sometimes prices – depending on the proximity to the river – differed even though the stores belonged to the same franchises (Stripes, Vaerlo, Sunoco).

Mexican customs restrict the importation of poultry into the country to protect its avian industry, resulting in higher prices for such merchandise there.

Mexican shoppers along the border often flock (no pun intended) to the U.S. side where they can purchase leg quarters for as little as 39 cents a pound when the product is on special in the HEBs or La Michoacana or El Globo.

The downtown HEB is the favorite of Mexican
residents who cross the bridge to stock up om the relatively inexpensive meat. It is the favorite store of plasma donors from Matamoros who merely walk the two or three blocks and then cross the river with the meat.

At the downtown HEB this past two weeks, leg quarters have been flying out the door at the discount price of 27 cents per pound, that is, $2.70 for 10 pounds.

Just a few miles down Elizabeth at the corner of Central Blvd., La Michoacana advertised that it was selling the same product at 37 cents per pound.

At El Globo up the expressway,. the price was also 39 cents.

So, for a Matamoros shopper with a car, if they had simply driven a few miles into the city, they would have had cheaper gas, but more expensive chicken leg quarters.

Does this make any sense?