Supermarket

This is a supermarket in the Garden Plaza Shopping Center at the entrance to Tamarindo. Have you ever seen a grocery store with a water feature like this in front of it for decoration? There is some parking next to the store, and a large underground parking garage. There are about 30 shops in this shopping center, with the supermarket and a home furnishings store being the two biggest.

This supermarket would be considered a high quality store by U.S. or European standards. It has a large produce section, fresh fish, butcher shop, fresh bakery, huge wine department, frozen foods, and it carries lots of imported foods from the USA and Canada. I will post a couple of photos of the inside of the store the day after tomorrow, and tell a little story that I hope will amuse you.

This supermarket, called Auto Mercado, is a chain based in San Jose that opened in Tamarindo last August. A friend of mine who was in the store on the day it opened said that the operators of the other, small grocery stores and convenience markets in Tamarindo were walking around the supermarket checking out the prices with which they were going to have to compete. You have to feel sorry for the owners of the small, local stores.

This photo, and my previously posted photo of
another part of this same Garden Plaza Shopping Center offer a contrast to the older main part of town shown in yesterday's photo.