Several months ago I wrote about a problem we’ve had in Argentina for several years, which was a constant shortage of monedas (coins), and the annoyances it caused such as not being able to take the bus because you couldn’t find any coins to pay with, stores refusing to sell you something if they had to give you coins as change, and receiving change in the form of candy, vegetables, and the such, in place of money.
In the past few months a combination of things has resulted in a dramatic decrease in the shortage, and actually I have started trying to avoid getting coins as change since I am accumulating so many. The first reason for the change is that the Argentine government has issued massive amounts of new coins, which is evident from the sudden shininess of coins. Next, the Sube card! You can load credit on this credit card sized card and use it on all buses and subways, eliminating the need for coins entirely. I use mine every time I travel from our office to our tasting room where we conduct wine tastings. This is a relatively minor issue, but since you now have to specify to the bus driver if you are paying with coins or with your sube card, it creates a little confusion. Also, the sube card readers have a learning curve to use. It looks like you should hold you card up to a certain area on the machine, but actually it is at the very bottom.
Actually, yesterday I was at Starbucks using their internet since mine hasn’t been working for the past week (this could be the topic for another blog entry…), and they didn’t have paper bills for change so had to give me $35 pesos in coins for change! A while back I would have been really excited for this, but not anymore!
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Related posts:
- Is an Excess of Coins in the Future?
- How-To Take the Bus (Colectivo) in Buenos Aires
- How to Change Consumer Attitudes Toward Wine Packaging
- How To Get Around in Buenos aires
- Goodbye to Buenos Aires
