By James Whittaker and Michael Klein
The place where most people might feel the impact of Cayman’s higher cost of living is in the grocery store.
The Compass analysed prices for 16 common items and found Cayman shoppers are paying a substantial premium on every item compared with our neighbours in the US.
In fact, our sample shopping basket costs almost double in an island grocery store compared with Walmart. Some basic items – notably milk, bread and bananas – cost double or triple what they would in the UK or US.
Transportation and duty are cited by supermarket owners as the key factors that drive up costs in Cayman.
Caribbean economist Marla Dukharan says this is a perennial issue for small island countries which don’t have the economies of scale to mitigate the impacts of importing necessities over long distances.
- Prices listed in the infographic are all converted to Cayman Islands dollars and reflect the cost for the same quantity of each product on the islands compared with Tesco in the UK and Walmart in the US.
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The prices on your items are in three different currencies which makes it difficult for the reader to compare. Why didn’t you use the conversion rate applicable on the day you wrote the article?
Prices listed in the infographic are all converted to Cayman Islands dollars.
What some people seem to forget that is that ALL these items are IMPORTED, , these islands, are NOT agricultural, by nature.