[RoadRunner]

Just returned from a recon trip to Wellington. We did a bit of random price comparison shopping. I'm not sure how helpful this will be, since we couldn't possibly know after only one week which store might be the most economical for certain items. However, we thought this would at least help us get a handle on whether things really are more expensive. Hopefully this is of some interest to others out there:

BOOKS: Books are outrageously priced! A typical paperback in the US is $7.99. We found that most stores were selling books around the NZ$25-$30 range. At first, we thought it was because we were only looking at American-authored books. But, no, they are all that expensive. (Side note: we were actually a bit surprised at the number of US authors they carry. They even had JA Jance, a local Arizonan author.) We tried several stores in CBD and the Jville Mall. Same general prices. A Kiwi that I interviewed with told me he only buys books through Amazon.com (he lived in the US for a couple of years and is now hooked on Amazon). Even with shipping costs, it still ends up being much cheaper. We saw a few used book stores so that might also be an option. And we've heard that Libraries have great selections but didn't actually confirm this.

DVDs: Don't even think about it. DVDs that we can get at BestBuy for $7 to $10 are going for around NZ$50. This would be another Amazon purchase.

MAKEUP: Again, outrageous! SoCal Gal mentioned in another thread that mascara cost NZ$25. I have to admit that I assumed she was referring to some high-priced cosmetic brand (like Dior or something). Nope. Something that we could buy at Target for $5 costs about NZ$25! Another price point - Clinique 7-day scrub cream was $56! :eek Lancome Hydra Zen moisturizer was $105. (Sorry if these are obscure items but they were easily available on shelves as we walked by.) How do Kiwi women afford this? I noticed that the professional business women I saw in Wellington were ALL wearing makeup so they obviously don't "do without." Very pricey! Note to self: stock up on mascara!

SHOES: Dismal situation. Again, we might not have looked in the right stores but a random sample of shoe stores in CBD showed that a basic pair of woman's black boots (just past ankles) cost about NZ$250-290. It is important to note that these were NOT some high-quality Italian brand like you'd find in Nordstrum's. These were basic low-quality cheap shoes. Men's shoes were equally pricey. We did note that there were some discount shoe stores in some of the suburban malls (e.g., Jville). The quality was not great there either but at least the prices were a tad less.

CLOTHES: I went to the woman's section at the K&S dept store in CBD. If I was in the right section, OMG! All they had were very pricy Versace (and similar) brands. If you love Neiman or Saks, this is the place for you. If you're a Macy's/Hechts/Dillards type, you're in for a world of hurt. Don't know what to do about this one. You can certainly buy clothes in advance but what do you do when those wear out?? My husband looked at a basic pair of Levi's and they were about 2x or 3x US prices. (I think it was NZ$100)

GROCERIES: This is a hard one since we weren't actually buying food for the week. However, it seemed that prices were slightly higher but not ridiculously so. Side note: They do not carry things like andouille sausage, various mexican spices, fresh chilies (e.g., jalepenos), coffee creamer. Although they did have green tabasco sauce and fresh chorizo sausage. (If anyone can tell me where I can find a local Mexican store in or near Welly, I'd appreciate it!) We were also surpised that most grocery stores did not seem to have a large selection of fresh fish. Where do you buy fish in Wellington??? Another oddity is that the meat was very thin - we went into several different grocery stores and butcher shops and they don't seem to cut really thick steaks or filet mignons like you can get here (especially at Costco). Not sure how you grill a decent medium-rare steak when they are barely 1/2" thick? Will have to hope the butcher will special cut them! SoCal Gal - they do have saltines!

ELECTRONICS: Others have noted that these items are pricier and it seemed that way to us.

Wow, this got to be pretty long. I'll stop here. If anyone has questions, let me know.
RoadRunner

[DrPhred]

Yikes.

As long as we don't read, wear shoes or makeup, buy movies or eat, we are fine? Can any Wellington residents back this up? Did roadrunner just hit the high-end shops?

[veronica]

Its that perspective thing again. Some of the prices compared to the UK are OK

[coastcat]

Wow.

We've had to delay our scouting trip to Welly until 2006, so I really appreciate the shopping report! Pretty depressing, though.

I prefer Asian makeup, since it goes better with my coloring. The best prices are at the big Asian supermarkets here, so I'll need to see if that holds true over in NZ as well. (assuming I can find Asian supermarkets; there are quite a few large ones and a lot of smaller ones in the DC area)

Guess those shoe prices explain why so many Kiwis go barefoot. :eek

[spodie]

Quick question. The price of a Blockbuster rental is around $4 here in the States. How much is a rental in NZ?

[GeorgeM]

Quick question. The price of a Blockbuster rental is around $4 here in the States. How much is a rental in NZ?

VideoEazy in Chc charges $8.

Alice in Videoland does $12 for 3 for a week. Has a huge range and a website where you can reserve on-line.

[spodie]

$12 for 3...a week?......SOLD!

[dave k]

Yeah..I guess some stuff is pricier than you're mebbe used to in the U.S.
It stacks up ok compared to the UK on stuff like food & drink though.
I'm no expert on clothes, (but NOBODY I know would shop at Kirkaldie & Stains for a pair of jeans!!! It'd be like popping into Harrod's food store for a tin of beans) but I recently bought a nice pair of jeans from Hallensteins for $28 that I'm very happy with.
Fresh fish should be more widely available ...especially since we're right next to the sea!...the only place I've found a decent supply is Pacific Catch/Moore Wilson's.
In fact, Moore Wilson's ROCKS for all sorts of reasons..pity you never called in on your reccy. (They even do fresh tomatillos you'll be pleased to know)
Mexican food stuff isn't widely available. Dunno why. I can't think of a single place to buy chillies other than Red or Green - certainly no Poblanos, Anaheims, etc. (you CAN get jalapenos though...again, Moore Wilsons)

Steaks? Buy a whole sirloin for about $45 and cut em yourself.

I'm sure other Wellingtonians can chime in with stuff.

[RoadRunner]

Dave,
Thanks for the responses! :nice1

NOBODY I know would shop at Kirkaldie & Stains for a pair of jeans!!! It'd be like popping into Harrod's food store for a tin of beans
HA! :laugh
Well, actually it wasn't at K&S that he price-shopped for jeans (just some random store on Lambdon Quay). BUT, the point is that when you are new to a city, it is always hard to know what is like a Harrods and what is just a nice shop for normal people! I've now added Hallensteins to my list of stores.

Pacific Catch/Moore Wilson's.
I think Miep mentioned this, too; I can't wait to go there! :yes
Think I'm going to overdose on the Mexican food for the next few weeks. (In fact, I'm making a chorizo-based chili with chipotle peppers tonight! Yum)

Steaks? Buy a whole sirloin for about $45 and cut em yourself.
That is a great idea. :nice1

Please keep the suggestions for stores coming! :yes :yes

RoadRunner

[mechidna]

Hey Roadrunner,

I was thinking (hard to do while packing), maybe you should open a mexican restaurant. I'd drive from rotorua every now and then for that. Then we could franchise and I'd open one in my city.

michele

[baboonworld]

There was the Mexican Cantina in Wgtn (dont know if it is still there) and a couple of other Mex Rests.

DVD's are cheapest at the Warhouse, as are some clothes.

Remember - Kiwis are so much into the labels as us. (actually i am a kiwi but 10 years in Uk)

We pay over £30 for Levis anyway (unless u go to Asda).

Make-up - not sure but I definately agree that the best fish is from the Fresh Fish place on Petone foreshore - someone will know the name.....?? :uhoh Really fresh - caught on the hour and excellent for eating raw (sashimi style)

[RoadRunner]

Michele,
I was thinking (hard to do while packing), maybe you should open a mexican restaurant.
HA! :P I do love to cook but certainly don't have what it takes to do a restaurant! Someone should though!

Thanks, Baboon, for the suggestions. Looking forward to the fresh fish - hard to get it here in the desert!

RoadRunner

[annaerb]

DVDs: Don't even think about it. DVDs that we can get at BestBuy for $7 to $10 are going for around NZ$50. This would be another Amazon purchase. You can buy DVD's from $10 upwards CD's are about $23

GROCERIES: . You can get Jalepenos/chillies in all varieties here. My OH loves them. He even grows his own. ( Another oddity is that the meat was very thin - we went into several different grocery stores and butcher shops and they don't seem to cut really thick steaks or filet mignons like you can get here (especially at Costco). Not sure how you grill a decent medium-rare steak when they are barely 1/2" thick? Will have to hope the butcher will special cut them!
My OH likes thick steak about 3" thick he asks the Butcher to cut this for him.

You really have to shop around.

[veronica]

I was surprised to read that about the thin steaks, have seen them in some of the supermarkets even at 1" or more thick. think I noticed them in New World particulaly

[jess]

Roadrunner -

We just returned and found the prices to be pretty much like you said. For books, electronics and makeup, you are dead on. The cheapest I found for a tube of Revlon lipstick (for which I usually pay $7 or so here in the US) was $17.95 in a pharmacy in Lower Hutt.

The groceries were all a little more than here, though nothing outrageous, like you said. The extra dollars did add up though.

I'm not complaining. we met up with a friend of a friend who's a kiwi while we were there, and he explained about how the import costs add to the price. I understand, but now that we have gone and scouted, we are trying to decide how probable it is that we can earn a little more in NZD than we do here in USD to make up the difference. Because otherwise, it doesn't seem like we'd get along very well.

I'm trying to look at all the things that might balance that out. Not having to pay health insurance would be one, except that my health is fully covered where I work. I'm sure there are other factors. We just need to really research this aspect now before we decide to send in the final app.

Jessica

[dave k]

You can get ...chillies in all varieties here. [b]My OH loves them. .

Not to be contrary, but...where?
I've only ever seen the generic red or green, jalapenos, occasionally Hungarian Hot Wax, Scotch bonnets, & bird-eyes. The whole rest of the chilli varieties used in Mexican cuisine ( Anaheim, Ancho, Cascabel, Chile de Arbol, Chipotle, Guajillo, Mulato, Poblano, Rojo, Serrano, etc. etc.) are nowhere to be found. At least in Wellington.

You can get em mail order though, and presumably at this Chch store -

http://www.aji.co.nz/bysection.php?SectionId=500

[RoadRunner]

Dave,
Thanks for that link! :yes :yes :yes

We've been trying to figure out how to smuggle in the canned chipotle chilies, ancho chile powder and pasilla chile powder! Nice to know we could order it more "locally." :yes

We've been eating almost nothing but spicy Mexican food for the last couple of weeks in preparation for some serious chili withdrawal. :laugh

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to try everything in Welly that I can't get here (good Malaysian cuisine is but one example) but every once in a while, I know we'll need a good chili fix.

(On the menu for Friday - grilled 3" thick filet mignon coated with a mix of ancho, pasilla, and other spices, served with a nice homemade pico de gallo! And a good shiraz! )

:cheers

RoadRunner

[KerryS]

Books are very expensive here - but the libraries are great. I bulk buy from Amazon things that I really want, especially cook books.

Make-up is extortionate, and as girl who never goes anywhere bare faced this has been hard. I like high end brands - Dior, Chanel etc, but have downgraded to Clinique and Lancome as these are slightly more affordable. Still, it's $45 for lipgloss! I now use strawberrynet.com, which is a complete lifesaver. All the cosmetics you could ever want at fantastic prices!

Clothes - I usually buy things over in Australia rather than here. They have a far better selection and you don't end up looking like a Max Clone, as most of the other people around do.

[Snappy]

I guess that for our American cousins, the cost of living is going to be comparably higher. We Brits are used to the phrase "rip-off Britain", where we pay double the price for many (if not almost most) things, with the knowledge that over the Pond in the US, they're well, half the price! And no sneaky internet buying, trying to take advantage of the exchange rate, as Customs and Excise will slap tax/duty on it anyway, and make it just as expensive as it is in the UK!
In the UK we're told that the high prices are related to fuel prices (cost of distribution) and import taxes, etc. etc. I expect that this would also apply to NZ, making it more expensive to import goods for sale to the public, than - say - the US.
I remember walking into Walmart for the first time, and feeling my jaw dragging on the floor at just how comparitively cheap everything was - ridiculously so. But I'm not bitter ... :no

[betty]

Long story short - do not move here from the US thinking that you'll have a significantly better standard of living, chances are you won't.

I was in shock when I got here and found that chicken breasts are averagely $16.99 a kilo, a bottle of shampoo is $10 and a Heineken at a bar is $6! But you adjust. I've started baking more and I'm definitely letting less food in the fridge go bad. And you go native - bacon and egg pies for lunch - $2.80!

But I do miss some things from home. Sadly enough on the top of the list is Buffalo Chicken fingers/wings. Has anyone seen these any place in Auckland?

-betty

[GeorgeM]

I was in shock when I got here and found that chicken breasts are averagely $16.99 a kilo

Some places might charge this much, but I wouldn't say that this was the average price.

a bottle of shampoo is $10

Or $3 depending on what brand you buy, how big the bottle is and where you get it from...

[betty]

When I go to the grocery stores in and around Auckland chicken breasts, not on sale, are usually NZ$16.99 a kilo. In Boston they were usually US$3.99 a pound (US$8.78 a kilo). A store brand 2 litre of milk here is $3.25, it was $3.99 a gallon (roughly 4 litres) at home.

http://www.woolworths.co.nz/HomeShopping/shop.asp

I'm making the same number of dollars per year as I was in Boston, but things here are more expensive. The research I did before coming to NZ led me to believe things would cost about the same, which wasn't true. I'm not bashing NZ, I just want people from the US to know what to expect.

But we didn't move here for the chicken or the milk - we moved for an adventure (and shorter commutes) and New Zealand is more beautiful in reality than any pictures can convey. We did the Tongariro Crossing a month ago and there's nothing like that back home!

[GeorgeM]

Fine Betty, but I still say that $16.99 is at the high end for chicken breasts, as is $10 a bottle for shampoo.

In Chch at least, Woolworths is the most expensive supermarket by a long way, so I would expect looking at their prices to show on the high side. Good ole Pak n Save or Countdown (or yer old mate the Mad Butcher) would come up with a better price, I'm sure.

I agree that people should get a realistic appreciation of what things cost but this works both ways. In UK terms (I'm sorry, I don't know the US equivalents) it would be foolish to compare Waitrose prices to a KwikSave equivalent because you would think that prices were very low in NZ, or to compare KwikSave prices to the most expensive chain in NZ as you would be way out the other way.

If you do most of your shopping in Woolworths I'm not surprised that you find NZ expensive! I had to beat my wife soundly several times before she stopped doing the weekly shop there.

Yesterday in Raeward Fresh in Chch (which has very good prices on fresh fruit and veg) they were selling Mainland butter at $3.25 for 500g. I have never paid more than $2 for it in Chch, and normally get it and freeze a quantity when it's on 3 for $5 or 2 for $3. So what's the price of 500g butter in NZ - $1.50 or $3.25?

[betty]

Funny you mention butter - it's the one thing I've noticed that's consistently much cheaper here.

Just to really beat this into the ground... the $16.99 price for chicken that stunned me was at New World, the Woolworth's site was just evidence. And unfortunately the owner of Woolworths (Progressive Enterprises) also owns the other grocery stores in my immediate area - Countdown and Foodtown - so for me all of the prices are usually about the same, and the same things go on sale simultaneously. Pak 'n Save (owned by Foodstuff's, who owns New World) is cheaper but is about 20-30 minutes away.

One thing that's great about working in NZ - a lot of companies stop work at 5pm on Fridays (or a little earlier) and then break out the beers. Everyone just hangs out for one or two and then heads home, goes out, etc. How's that for a nice work/life balance?! Very cool.

[sweetpea]

When I go to the grocery stores in and around Auckland chicken breasts, not on sale, are usually NZ$16.99 a kilo. In Boston they were usually US$3.99 a pound (US$8.78 a kilo).

Well, I've got a solution to your problem... backyard chickens.

Not only will their antics compensate for the dismal NZ television offerings, but they'll lay some tasty eggs (girls) and make great broilers (boys). And all for much less than $16.99/kilo :mrgreen: