Answering Readers Concerns, about Living 10 Minutes by Taxi, from Downtown Cuenca (Part 1)

Comment from a reader: Other than El Centro, are there neighborhoods in Cuenca that are somewhat vibrant with a bit of their own personality that might hold some appeal to expats?

 

Frank and Angie answer: Sure there is; in fact each neighborhood has it's own charm and appeal from the locals who do business there and live; from quaint cafe's to mouth-watering panaderias, We find the Ecuadorian neighborhoods more appealing to live in than the gringo gulches, for the simple reason “this is an Ecuadorian country”, and we feel the best way to truly experience the culture and be a part of it is to integrate yourself into the country you live in. You can segregate yourself from the Ecuadorian neighborhoods if that is what you want, but why isolate yourself? 



However, we think you would be hard-pressed to even find an ONLY gringo enclave in Cuenca; if they are here, we don't know about them and we don't want to know about them.



Update 2014: The areas or neighborhoods that have the most gringos are: Chalubamba. El Vergel, Gringolandia, and El Centro. But they also have Ecuadorians living in these neighborhoods. Also, don't be fooled and think they are the best neighborhoods in Cuenca. In fact, quite the opposite. More home invasions occur in these areas or near these neighborhoods. That is just one of the costs you have to pay if you want to be near other gringos. 



UPDATE 2014: Also the price of rents in these areas is more pricey for obvious reasons but they are not better neighborhoods. In 2011 you could easily rent a beautiful home in Challubamba for $300, today, you are lucky to find one under $900 dollars! 

We feel that anyone who decides to live the North American lifestyle in Ecuador would be doing themselves a big disservice financially and culturally speaking. There is nothing appealing about eating out for dinner at North American prices when right next door there is an Ecuadorian managed restaurant for half the price, nor is it very appealing to pay North American rents, in Ecuador, when you don’t have to.

Ecuadorians are an energetic, talkative, curious, and often vibrant people. Since this is Ecuador you will find that the Ecuadorian neighborhoods are pretty much the same, whether it is downtown area or a neighborhood 15 minutes away. Ecuadorians love to eat, listen to loud music, go to festivals, shop for stuff, enjoy being with family and do fireworks, play in the parks with their children, and socialize in all the areas of Cuenca, in the restaurants and at home, and on the streets. This makes all of Cuenca vibrant and alive!

Comment from a reader: Living outside the action could be quite lonely for someone arriving by him/herself -- or with just one other person.

Frank and Angie answer:  This comment doesn’t apply.  You’re in the city of Cuenca regardless of where you are.  That is our whole point.  Aside from the fact that international expats are tripping over themselves to outbid themselves for the 2 x 4 square mile area referred to as the “historical center”.  Living outside the action? Not sure what you mean by “action”.  

It’s true that the density of people is higher in the “historical center” but everywhere you go in Cuenca, whether the “historical center” or the rest of the city, there are people walking around and shopping all over the place. 



Everywhere in Cuenca there are people enjoying the outdoors of Cuenca and they come equipped with umbrellas too. Even when it rains there are lots of people out and about on the streets. And even though the density is not as high, there are just as many and similar types of stores everywhere else in Cuenca, and some you can’t find in the center, like wood supply, hardware stores, malls, and major grocery stores.

If you’re the partying type and that is the kind of “action” you are referring to, if you move to Ecuador you’d better have a body guard.  Many of the expats that get robbed here are coming out of bars and nightclubs intoxicated, with their guard down, in downtown Cuenca.  Don’t think we have to explain this one. 

If the “action”  is festivals, free symphonies, going out for ice cream, or eating out in restaurants, or taking a tour, and you want to go downtown to do these things then by all means, call yourself a taxi; it will cost you all of $5 bucks both ways, $6 at most.  

There are not daily festivals, these are only occasional, so it’s a misconception that you are “in the action” because most of the time the center is very quiet in that respect.  And once you’ve taken a tour, then, you wouldn’t be taking it again right?  This is what tourists do; permanent residents don’t concern themselves with such things.  Permanent residents can do whatever they want whenever they want, because they don’t have the “tourist” time constraint.

Comment from a reader: Some expats feel vulnerable due to age and the related physical problems that can accompany aging. A secure building is a reasonable solution for many because of this.

Frank and Angie Answer: The high rise secure condo buildings that are geared to older people and physically challenged are not downtown; they are about a 20 to 30 minute walk from downtown on Grand Columbia, and all the way up to Avenida las Americas and Ordenz Lasso.

The State Travel website states that those with disabilities (or age related physical problems) thinking of moving to Ecuador should think twice. Ecuador is not really set up with U.S. style infrastructure to service the disabled or physically challenged person very well, at least not at this time. This may change in the future. But for now, we see this as a fact because we live here. 

Many times you have to walk over big rocks on the cracked up sidewalks, sometimes there is no side walk at all, the bus system also is not set up properly to chair lift a wheel chair it must be manually put on the bus. 

The downtown area has very narrow sidewalks, usually when two people are walking together, one has to get off the side walk or go behind the other just so other people can get by; curbs do not have ramps for those in a wheel chair or for those who have difficulty lifting up their legs and some of the curbs are two feet high! Sidewalks are narrow and all broken up, and quite a few businesses and restaurants have a foot curb that one must step up to get inside. 

So, while the secure building thing may apply in some respects, it really doesn’t erase any of the above mentioned concerns for them.  And following that train of thought, we don’t see that particular minority of people as being the cause of the gringo gulch/inflation going on in the center.   

We do see however, irrational fear among the expat community and a correspondingly irrational sense of security from being in the center.  Again, the facts show that there is just as much if not more petty crime against expats in the center (and the other neighborhoods we mentioned) as anywhere else in Cuenca.  They’re putting a bulls-eye on themselves.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we address more readers concerns about living 10 minutes by taxi from downtown Cuenca.  



UPDATE 2014: We wrote this article in 2011; a whole lot has changed in Cuenca since the first publication of this article. The new Cuenca has expats living all over the city now and are not just confined to the downtown area. As a matter of fact, most expats prefer to live outside of the downtown (el Centro) area as there is less smog and noise pollution away from downtown. So there  you go!  The tourists/visitors are the ones that temporarily live in El Centro.



We hope you enjoyed this article. If you are moving to Cuenca or just visiting, the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide will make your experience more fulfilling and relaxing. Let the guide do all the work!

10 Benefits of Living 10 Minutes by Taxi from the City Center of Cuenca

Guess what? Believe it or not, living outside of the historic city center of Cuenca  is nice Too! What kind of picture do you imagine in your mind of Cuenca outside of the colonial downtown area? Do you think it is dirt roads with farm animals running loose? Do you think there are only a few small stores and nothing else? Do you think it is where the impoverished live in shacks? Cuenca is a nice city even outside of the historic district. In fact, many areas are much newer and modernized compared to the historic district of downtown. 

When we talk about city-center or downtown area of Cuenca we mean just that; living away from the city-center does not mean you are not in Cuenca anymore. Cuenca has about 450,000 people, it is not that small. The colonial city center of downtown is about a 2 mile by 4 mile radius. Living away from this radius is where you will find “local” priced rentals, although you’re still in the city of Cuenca.

BTW, there is also an area close by Supermaxi, off of Avenida las Americas and Grand Columbia, that is also VERY expensive (it’s where all the gringo high rise brown brick condos are located) so if you don’t want to pay U.S rents in Ecuador, stay away from that area as well.

Below are 10 benefits of living outside of the city center of Cuenca. 

1. Waaaay less smog: Downtown cuenca is full of auto exhaust, and it’s pretty bad. We know of one couple who left their beautiful apartment with a nice view of the colonial area; they are an older couple (worse for older people and especially those with lung or health issues) and they felt that breathing in the exhaust every day was detrimental to their health. And they are right. They moved to Vilcabama, EC. 

2. Outside the city center you can flush your toilet paper down the toilet. In old colonial Cuenca, which is the city center, putting your toilet paper in the toilet is a no-no. You know, like when a baby sticks their car or baby doll in the toilet and then flushes, that is what’s going to happen if you put too much toilet paper down the old plumbing in a colonial building. In the buildings in colonial Cuenca you put the toilet paper in the waste basket. Ugh!

3. Rentals cost waaaaaay less dollars. The same amount of space you’ll get in a downtown colonial apartment you can get for half price, ten minutes away by taxi from the city center, plus it will be a newer building. Not living in the downtown area will be your biggest savings by far on your monthly cost of living. People just don’t realize that prices have sky-rocketed in downtown Cuenca. We have real-estate agents telling us they don’t have any rentals less than $600 now in the city center.

(If you do hear of someone renting for less than $250 downtown it is because they rented it a few years ago or it’s just a studio apartment.)

Even so, understand you can still get taken advantage of when renting away from the downtown area, if you allow it. But at least once you’re out of the colonial district there are still local-priced rentals out there, you just have to keep looking and asking around to find one. 

4. Waaaay less noise pollution: away from the downtown area there is a lot less noise and congestion, unless you are living right on a busy road like Avenida las Americas. There is a lot of heavy, loud traffic piled up in the downtown area, and is another reason there is so much smog pollution as well. In Ecuador they like to honk their horns a lot…and they are loud horns.

5. Learn Spanish Quicker: the best way to learn anything in life is “hands on” and in the case of learning a new language, total immersion. Conversing with shop keepers, landlords, restaurant owners, people on the street, etc, will in fact help you to understand the language much faster. 

Going to gringo run agencies, restaurants, and shops will keep you segregated from the community and the culture, is that what you want? The Ecuadorians will respect you more for trying rather than saying “no hablo espanol.”

6. Historic center will still be a neat area to visit while living in Cuenca: The old colonial downtown is really neat, no doubt about it; and it still amazes us the beautiful architecture and everything about it. But the question is if we lived downtown in an old colonial building would the downtown area still be neat and special to us. Probably not. The fact of the matter is, we can walk downtown from our house in 30 minutes and we can take a bus in 15 minutes and go to the city center whenever we want. 

7. Four rivers in Cuenca: The river and views is not just downtown Cuenca. There are four rivers that surround the city of Cuenca, so virtually pretty much living anywhere within the city you will have a river near your home. 

8. The mountain views are better away from the city center area: If you like to look out your window and see the Andes Mountains the views seem to be better outside the city center; this could be because you are closer to the mountains when not in the downtown area. The tall buildings downtown also tend to block the mountain views a lot of the time, depending on where you’re at. 

9. View of the colonial downtown: Have you ever seen the magnificent view of the colonial city center? Well, you can’t get that view if you are a part of that view, meaning living in the city center. Living even just half way up the hill gives you that view without the smog and noise pollution. Ironically, homes are not more expensive when you live in the hills of Cuenca like they are in North America. 

10. Big North American Style Grocery Stores and Mall Del Rio:   The North American style big grocery stores are away from the historical center, giving you more choices and more variety.  The mall is definitely not in the center.   So no matter how you look at it, if you live downtown, if you want to go grocery shopping you’ll have to take a taxi or a bus. 

The “Cost of Living” Hype about Cuenca Ecuador -- Can You Really Retire on $600 Month?

Another article came out just today Reuters Yahoo Finance, about how a couple can retire on $600 a month in Cuenca Ecuador. Let us make something perfectly clear. You CANNOT retire on $600 a month in Cuenca Ecuador, doing it the way that most expats are doing it now. This couple leased an apartment almost two years ago…we want to see $200 a month downtown apartment, overlooking the river today in Cuenca!

In the Yahoo article the couple mentioned they rent an apartment for $200 a month overlooking the river in Cuenca; Yeah, maybe back in 2010 when they found the apartment. Finding this kind of a deal now for a two bedroom is gone in the downtown area, and especially if it is furnished.  

If any Ecuadorian or gringo real estate Agency would like to call us on it, go for it, and please let us know where in downtown Cuenca we can actually rent a two bedroom furnished for $200 a month. We’ll be thrilled to tell our readers about it.

So can you retire on $600 a month? The answer is yes and no. read on.

Here’s what’s happening, the hype of these articles gets everyone (mostly those people on a retirement pension) all excited and they quickly come to Ecuador…then after several months they realize, “I can’t retire on $600 a month; my rent is $400 right now; my food bill is $100 a week; my Internet is $40 a month; entertainment is $60 a week; and my transportation costs are over $100 a month!! What a bunch of hype about cost of living in Cuenca Ecuador, I can’t retire on $600 a month, my living costs now are almost $1200! I should have never believed that magazine article!!”

This is true; living like that you cannot retire on $600!

But the truth is a couple CAN Retire on $600 if they are FRUGAL and do things the way we do and have been doing and advocating all along on this blog.

We’ve been reading and hearing about more and more expats who have come to Cuenca and are disappointed because they believed all the hype about cost of living in Cuenca Ecuador. It’s sad, but this is what happens when we don’t look at the whole picture and do our due diligence research. 

Our readers email us weekly with high priced rentals and real-estate because they cannot believe their eyes. They want to know if the high prices they are seeing in Cuenca are true (Yeah it’s true). The first things out of their mouth is, “Oh my gosh; I can just stay here where I’m at in the U.S for that price!” 

If these magazines and websites are going to talk about the low cost of living in Cuenca Ecuador then they should at least have the facts to back it up and to show people how to do it, which is exactly what we do in the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide.  In our guide there is no hype. Our family of five adults lives on less than $1,000 a month in Cuenca Ecuador. See our monthly cost of living here.

So then is it entirely possible one or two people can live on $600 if they are willing to follow our guidelines? YES IT IS…you just need to know the ins and outs of going local in Cuenca Ecuador. 

Here’s the thing, we have not met any expat couples here in Cuenca yet that are actually living on $600 a month, and the reason being is THEY don’t know how or THEY don’t care to know how.  Folks are rushing down here and doing things the way they are used to in North America, but this is South America! 

We keep reading in articles about how a couple is living on $600 a month but where are they? All we hear and read about is expats complaining about all the hype of Cuenca, and they are leaving Ecuador.   Many others are renting $600-$750 a month apartments!

They lease high priced rentals in gringo gulches, and buy properties from greedy real estate agents that have upped the price by 50%, they buy food in the Americanized grocery stores, never taking the bus or walking anywhere outside of the center, and so on and so forth.  Nope, $600 is NOT going to happen doing that. 

We just found (Two days ago, March 10, 2012) another beautiful home; it's 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, three story in a nice and quiet Ecuadorian neighborhood for $200 a month! Now, it did take some considerable searching, foot work, knowing some Spanish, and humbleness (Frank quickly lets people know we are not rich and we are not going to pay gringo prices) to find this house. 

This big, beautiful home is nicer than the one we are in now and bigger and with a nicer back yard, for $50 less a month!  Oh and guess what else, we didn’t even have to negotiate the price with the landlord because $200 was the real price!? This landlord did not try and gringo us, so we quickly gave him a $200 deposit on it for our friends who are moving to Cuenca this month. 

We also found last week in our searching, a small, but nice three bedroom one bath apartment for $180 a month in a very nice Ecuadorian neighborhood just a few blocks from the Coral Centro. It takes due diligence (time and effort)  just like we’ve been telling you all along, to find these local priced rentals but they are out there.  These are all private parties, no real estate agents!

So you see, with doing some leg work (literally) and talking to local people, moving away from the city center, and walking around and calling all of the Spanish ads, you’ll find the right priced rentals in Cuenca. We list many great rental resources and tips in our DIY Cuenca Landing Guide. 

If you decide to move to Cuenca and live at the local pricing structure, you can’t bring your North American way of doing things here and get the $600 a month way of living, it isn’t going to happen. People come here and just go to rental agency or real-estate Company or look at the English language ads or websites and get an apartment or house. No wonder they are paying exorbitant prices. These types of agencies and English language ads are geared just for the so called “rich gringo” that moves to Cuenca.  Is that how you want to move here? Well you don’t have to.

If you’re going to move here, then move here, don’t live like a tourist on vacation. 

Start by walking around, interacting with the Ecuadorians, then read the Spanish ads and use google translate, never give up and keep looking, be willing to walk away at stupidly over priced rentals and be sure to let them know it is waaaay over-priced for Ecuador! 

The bottom line is real simple: If your ideal retirement haven is living in a gringo gulch with 24 hour security guards stationed, taking taxis everywhere you go, shopping at the malls, eating out in the International restaurants and grocery shopping at Supermaxi, then you could just as well find your paradise Cuenca anywhere you care to go, the world is a large place; Cuenca is not that special in the global view of things, really, it’s just a South American Andes mountain town.

But if your goal is to relocate and restart your life in a new land--then living in an Ecuadorian neighborhood, away from the city center, taking the bus or walking, taxi only sometimes, shopping and being frugal at the Mercado’s and Coral and cooking your own international food and or patronizing the Ecuadorian restaurants --can help you make Cuenca --be that place. 

It’s really up to how you live. The old North American dream of prosperity and liberty can be yours but you might have to change some of your habits and integrate yourself with the local culture. No one can certainly tell you how to live, but if frugality and immersing yourself into the culture of Ecuador sounds like something you want to do then most of the Ecuadorians will welcome you here with open arms. 

For more details on how to live frugal and happy in Cuenca see the DIY Cuenca Landing guide, you’ll be glad you have this guide book on your computer.

Is it cheaper to live in Pennsylvania or Cuenca?

Someone posted a comment on one of our You Tube Videos saying that it was cheaper for them to live in Pennsylvania than live in Cuenca. Here’s her comment.

I'm married to an Ecuadorian, and we are probably going to end up there, but as far as cheap, it's cheaper to retire in central Pennsylvania. Homes are cheaper, no tax on retirement, etc.

And then just yesterday we read where someone posted on a forum saying they had to leave Cuenca and move back to Indiana because they couldn’t make ends meet here?

This is not the first time we have read something like this from people, nor will it be the last. About three months ago someone was saying that it was cheaper to buy a house in Las Vegas than in Cuenca. For some reason its fun for people to compare U.S cities with Cuenca Ecuador. But it’s like comparing kiwis with mangos, two totally different kinds of fruit.

Is it cheaper to live in some U.S states than in Cuenca? Absolutely not! Food, rents, taxes, utilities, and medical and dental are much more affordable in Ecuador than in many other places in the world.  

But even with that said, every individual, couple, or family has their own circumstances that determine the ideal place for them to live.  Cuenca may or may not be that place—this is why it takes careful planning and due diligent research according to YOUR circumstances BEFORE you come here.

If a couple or family is coming here without a plan and they have no retirement income, they may not be able to make it here—it really depends on how you want to live and what you want to do when you get here. Everybody’s situation is different. Some things can be risky, such as relying on a social security pension, since these pensions become smaller and smaller as the years go by and can change without a moment’s notice

It is true that in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and in many other major U.S locations real estate is a bargain right now. But that certainly does not mean it is cheaper to live there than here. What it means is you can buy more house for your money there right now than in Cuenca, maybe.

It could be cheaper to live in the U.S over Ecuador if you grew all of your own food, didn’t drive a car, owned your own self sufficiency home with alternative energy, and took care of your own physical and emotional health to reduce visits to the doctor.

Even though Cuenca’s property prices have risen about 20% percent  you can still find a diamond in the rough if you know where to look and how to negotiate a price that is fair to both parties—that means not letting yourself get gringoed.

The cost of living in Cuenca, at least at this time, and AFTER you have set up your home with furniture and appliances is far more affordable on the budget than most U.S cities.

The truth is anyone can live anywhere in the world quite frugally when they put their resourcefulness to work, have the right attitude, and the willingness to work the self sufficient lifestyle.

Does anyone think the reason we’re seeing these comments about U.S cities being  cheaper than Cuenca might be that people are reading about how cheap a place is to live somewhere and then, without doing their own diligent research, jet on down to the place without a care in the world?  Could this be the biggest reason “why” some people move back to where they came from?

Even with higher property taxes and higher utility bills, for committed self sufficient living, and if you don’t mind snowy winters, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania just may be cheaper than Cuenca Ecuador after all.  We looked into Pittsburgh Pennsylvania before coming to Cuenca.  Pittsburgh has a lot going for it.  It all depends on who you talk to…but as a lot of us know, there’s more to life than just cost of living…comments?...

15 Days in Ecuador: Where and How Would You Spend Your Days?

I have a good friend who is going to be visiting Ecuador in January.  She is going with her husband, and they will be staying 15 days.  They want to see as much as possible, but as the date approaches, she is getting a little apprehensive as to how to make the most of their time in the 15 day stay.  She has seen ads where people offer “tours” for a large amount of money.  I told her that my thoughts on this, were that these tours were a big waste of money, and just a way to scalp a gringo.  LOL.  I realize I could be wrong, but the prices for these “tours” seem outrageous. 

It’s true, and we agree, that the fees are high, and we figure it’s because both the internet promoter and the local are sharing the fee.  When we came here we didn’t use any guides and did everything ourselves, it can be done but it does take longer to figure things out.  Your friends may not have the luxury of time.

I am thinking that there must be a more affordable way to hook up with someone local for a reasonable fee, but I’m not sure how one would go about doing this.  Of course, the first people I thought of were ya’ll.  I believe this couple would enjoy meeting some locals.  (BUT, they speak very little Spanish).

We’re in the process of writing a “DIY(do it yourself) Cuenca Landing Guide”, a how to manual for first time people to Cuenca with great detail on where everything is, a written guide, with email support, that would save you both time and money, maybe it will be done before they get here, check the blog frequently. 

We decided to write it because Frank figured out that if he would have had such a manual, as frugal as he is, being here for the first time, he still would have saved time and money had he had such a manual in hand.  It’s our way of keeping gringo inflation at bay. In the absence of that however, have them contact us directly, and we’ll help them as best we can. 



UPDATE: The Cuenca Guide is PUBLISHED! Here's a handy link to the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide. You can read the reviews here and all the chapters, and read the book up to page 11. 

My friends are in their early 50s, and they are basically going on this trip to check things out.  What they are wanting to see is “life in Ecuador”.  They want to visit some different areas, check out different places to stay, possibly look at the housing market, and then maybe even check out the Amazon Rainforest.  

Well, I think you’ll be cutting it very tight to see all that within fifteen days.  Having said that, there’s different ways to approach this.  One way is to make an area your base (Cuenca could be a good starting point) and then use it as a jumping off point, and do things leisurely at your own pace so as to enjoy the trip.

The other way would be to schedule everything in say three different areas, Cuenca, Quito and the Coast, in advance and adhere to a schedule, but this is not recommended as usually what can go wrong will go wrong, could be very stressful and not as enjoyable being on a tight itinerary, and it’s better to work locally anyhow. 

I am going to put her in touch with you, but she has just had carpal tunnel surgery, and it’s a lot easier for me to type.   What we are wondering, is:  Is it really worth it to pay these “tour” companies (or people) several hundred dollars to “show them around”.  Is there really any value in something like this?  I guess another question in this is:   Is there a better way to “see” Ecuador, if you are totally new to the area and on your own?

  

Well again, we favor the slow, leisurely do it yourself approach.  I for one would want to see the whole coast, and not just one town, and I think that in itself might take the whole fifteen days to get a real feel for it.  When we first got to Cuenca, the first week we were in wonderment and amazement just wandering around town and getting a feel for it.  Just remembering where all the markets and stores are and taking it all in can easily take a couple of weeks or longer just for Cuenca.  But then again, that’s our style, we like to slow down and smell the roses so to speak. 

If you have more money than time, hiring a bunch of guides might seem like the thing to do, but what’s the hurry? Are you really going to get the real feel of a place by just briefly viewing something you can see in a picture anyhow, and then moving on?  The essence of Ecuador is, live, and enjoy, go slow and don’t worry.

Remember that the guides don’t care whether you get the best or a low price on anything, so you will not be seeing the real Ecuador, only an overpriced artificial one in our opinion.  Everything will be higher.  Is that really what you want?

If you had 15 days to spend in Ecuador, where, according to you would you spend your time?  They want to be able to see several different areas and not knowing anything much about Ecuador, I guess they are wanting to know where their time would best be spent.

If you still want to see as much as you can in fifteen days I would choose the three areas above (Quito, Cuenca, and Coast) and ask around about best neighborhoods and places to stay and then get a quick five day glimpse of each?  Of course, contact us for the Cuenca area.

These are VERY sweet people, and if they come by your area, I’m sure they would love to meet ya’ll, as they will be totally on their own, and will be wandering around, wondering what to do.  I’m sure it would feel good to them to be able to make contact with other Americans while they are there.  I am hoping that ya’ll might be able to meet up somewhere during their stay.

Sure, no problem.  We love meeting sweet people. 



Have you got any suggestions along these lines?  Do you have any good recommendations of places to stay?

Have them Contact us.

SuperStock Department Store in Cuenca: Bargain on Extra Virgin Olive oil

We came across another huge department store in Cuenca. SuperStock has been right under our noses the whole time we have lived here but never took notice until a few weeks ago. SuperStock has three stories and is stocked up with all your household needs. They have a lot of decor items and knick knacks upstairs. Some items are reasonably priced but other items seem to be a bit over board. We did find some great bargains on Extra Virgin Olive oil and that was a pleasant surprise. They also make whole wheat (integral) bread and we call it in a day ahead and they bake it the morning we arrive so the bread is fresh!