There's a New Grocery Store in Town

Okay, so this is the biggest thing to happen in Panajachel in three years. People have been pumped about this for MONTHS on the Facebook groups.
Yes, finally this past weekend, La Torre Supermercado opened! YAY!!!
We didn't go opening weekend cuz we wanted to avoid the crowds (ha!) so we waited until today to go. It was impressive. NJP came with us and we had a great time commenting and joking about all the foods! I think we may have startled some shoppers. 😊

La Torre means "tower", hence the logo.

Oooh! So shiny and clean!

A nice selection of fruits and veggies. Reminds me of Sobey's back home.

Canned soup! Honestly, don't see this much around here. Soup is sold in pouches as a dry mix.
I used to eat Campbell's vegetable soup straight from the can with a spoon. Cold. Ah, the good old days. 😆

Prego. YUM. Pasta sauce is sold in single-serve pouches in Despensa.
Check out the price though. Q30 for alfredo sauce?? That's $4 USD or $5.25 CDN.

Awesome! Refrigerated meats! Really nice selection of all meats and cold cuts and also prepackaged stuff in another case. And a friendly clean butcher to fulfill your "carne" desires! 😁

Bert grabbing a rare treat, Jalapeño poppers! He was over the moon for these!

Mister Huevo. Ha! Not Señor Heuvo or Mister Egg. Yay bilingualism!
It also says "Those of the nice yellow yolk."

Huh? Is this Diet Sprite?

Not one millisecond of hesitation when I saw this!! It was the last one on the shelf.
Later, I found more at the checkout. It cost Q10 for only 2 cups. That's $1.75 Cdn.
WORTH EVERY CENTAVO. 😍

Chip dip???? Another thing we have not seen much here. Of course, we grabbed the cebolla -- onion.
It was very thick, like cream cheese dip, but tasted a bit strange, like too cheesy or something.

Can't have dip without chips! Tyrrell's even! These are British crisps and super yummy.

Yes, that is caviar. Rob was tempted but I said no. Ha ha!

So you're probably wondering what the big deal is. A new grocery store. So what?
Well, we've been shopping almost exclusively at Despensa Familiar for three years now. It is BORING. Their selection is crap. However, their prices are low.
We occasionally shop at Chalo's and Sandra's. Chalo's is a bit higher up than Despensa, and then Sandra's is the import store. Very expensive.

Honestly, there wasn't much at La Torre that I hadn't seen in the three other stores in town. The prices were a bit higher on standard things like beans and pasta and such. The big thrill was the selection. Just having variety is soooo awesome. I could shop Despensa with my eyes closed, and Bert and I always go there and complain that we're BORED with everything they sell. We've tried it all. La Torre is full of new things to eat! 😋

Nice things at La Torre:
Lots of hair dyes and beauty stuff for ladies
Nice pet food selections, although no PetMaster, which is what we feed our doggies
Great wines and liquors
Lots of CHEESE!!
Prepackaged meats for those who don't want to talk to the butcher
Our favourite precooked, precut roast beef pieces for fajitas and roast beef sandwiches
Decent fruits and veggies, although I will probably still hit up the market for those things
Whole wheat flour
Good variety of cereals
Frozen foods, like stuff you can throw in the microwave (Bert's fave section)

Bad things:
It's more expensive, though not by as much as I expected
It's far from us, like literally the farthest side of town

Final thoughts? Bert is hyped to shop there all the time, he says. I will still go to Despensa for staple foods but head over to La Torre when I need something fun and different. Kinda the same as home. I always shopped at No Frills but loved going to Zehrs and Sobey's to just get treats. La Torre feels the same as that. Shiny, clean, organized, but the prices cause frugal me to hestitate just a wee bit.

La Torre is located on the main street just as you enter town from Sololá. Can't miss it!
La Torre website HERE for those wanting to browse items and compare prices.