I bought a can of Pringles yesterday for R$ 10. It was a good deal considering that the normal price is R$ 15.

See, R$ 15 is a lot of money for a 104-gram can of potato chips. I’m not Alan Harper, I’m not that cheap. The price is what it is, and it will be paid by me with no complaining whatsoever. But still, R$ 15 on a Pringles…

Each ‘potato’ inside the can is thin, small and, let’s be honest, tasteless compared with what Pringles was like 10 years ago. Given that, it feels okay to buy it on sale, since the money we would use to buy Pringles at its regular price wouldn’t even get you a large fries at McDonald’s.

Yeah, McDonald’s in Brazil is insanely expensive. If you don’t have much money, and need to buy cheap food, McDonald’s is not the place you would go (which maybe is a good thing?).

Some say that Brazilians are not yet dealing with severe obesity because the hypercaloric food from franchises like this is not accessible to most of the population. And maybe they are right. Long before the post-pandemic global inflation, McDonald’s had astonishing prices here, while in other countries, let’s say the US and England, the story has always been a little bit different (hey, don’t blame me for bringing obesity to the light).

And the cultural aspect also contributes to Brazilians being thinner (but not too much) than the rest of the so-called First World. Being forced to remain a commodities-based country, we have available in our markets a huge variety of real food. Fruit, meat, eggs, vegetables… They may be way too expensive now, but they are still relatively affordable and easy to find.

And most importantly, we want to eat natural food - rice and beans are almost a religion in Brazil.