Jau' Serve is the best grocery store in Jau', and I dare say... the world? I know, being from Rochester, this is blasphemy. Wegman's is this king in America. Jau' Serve is smaller than a wegmans store, but it's really, really nice. I will do another segment on Jau Serve the next time I visit. This time, my mission was brazilian candy and listerine to mute the effects. But, they had an awesome bulk spice section among others. Tiago and I weren't there for long before we got a call from a friend and we had to go.
Here's a pic of me at the beer section. This is one of my biggest complaints about Brazil. The beer here is fine, but it doesn't light a candle to the fine German imported beer I'm used to buying. They had a couble of German beers there, but imports just aren't that common because of ridiculous import taxes. On electronics, the tarrif is 70%. I'm guessing there's a similar tarrif on beer, because a mini keg of Heineken/Warsteiner was $40. The same keg would be ~$18 in America.
3 comments:
Kev,
There was a time when the US had high tariffs. It was at the same time that we had a large manufacturing base. The main purpose of tariffs is to level the playing field between domestic manufacturers and imports. For example, if you can make a pair of Shoes locally with $5.00 in labor in them, and you decide to move the factory to China where you can make the same shoes for just $1.00 in labor, the tariff should be $4.00. This means you can make the shoes anyplace you want, but you shouldn't move from your own country just to get a lower labor rate.
When the US had high tariffs they paid for most of cost of running the country. Today we have few or no tariffs in the US and taxes pay for the running of the country. In either case you pay, but with tariffs you also get lots of jobs.
Today things like tariffs that protect American jobs are considered to be "protectionist" and that is considered to be a bad thing.
John K.
I think this is a perfect opportunity to make your own beer and share it with the locals. Just need to find yourself a wine cellar to ferment it in.
Hey Folks,
Thanks for the comments. It's true tarrifs are for an economy's protection. I remeber taking an economics course at some point in time, and I remember learning that taxed trade does not allow one to realize the "production possibilty frontier" or some kind of garbage like that. Meaning, people should take advantage of their strengths and import their weakness. For intance, Brazilians should allow free imported German beer, cuz their beer isn't as good. They could stick with... sugar and jokes... haha.
I see what your saying though. If you want to build your country in a different way than the rest of the world would have it, the gov needs to step in. I guess that's why the US is doing ethanol and wind power subsidies... a protectionist energy policy.
KP
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