How much does it cost?

I'll buy it. Actually, at these prices, I probably won't. In order to give you a little glimpse into the price of imported goods here, I took some awful cell phone photos of  foods people commonly buy in the US. All of the products featured below are sold by a nice little store called City Shop, which stocks all types of international goods and is conveniently located in my basement.

For the sake of this very unscientific experiment, I am using the price of the good as found on Amazon (I am fully aware that with sales and coupons, the price for these products would be even lower in most US grocery stores). All prices are in USD and calculated using the exchange rate as it stood on the date I wrote this post.

First up, we have mayonnaise. In a squeeze bottle no less. Am I the only one that used to squeeze this stuff directly into my mouth as a child? No, no one else? Moving on then.

Hellman's Real Mayonnaise (9 oz)
Amazon Price: $2.81

City Shop Price: $9.33

Jif Creamy Peanut Butter (18 oz)

Amazon Price: $3.28

City Shop Price: $12.55

Doritos Nacho Cheese Chips (12 oz)

Amazon Price: $4.50

City Shop Price: $11.23

Life Cereal (13 oz)

Amazon Price: $4.30

City Shop Price: $15.29

Prego Traditional Spaghetti Sauce (24 oz)

Amazon Price: $3.27

City Shop Price: $8.37

Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (1.5 quart)

*Average US grocery price: $5.99

City Shop Price: $27.04

No, that last price is not a typing error. If I want to buy Breyers Ice Cream, it will set me back a whopping $27. (Understandably, you cannot buy ice cream online so I was unable to price it through Amazon. But a quick online search of a few US grocery stores revealed a fairly consistent price for this product).

Total of above goods on Amazon: $24.15

Total of above goods at City Shop: $83.81

And that my friends, is why we stock our suitcases full of food whenever we are back in the US. I just wish we could use that same trick for ice cream.