Prices & Food in Brazil

I'm continually shocked at the prices of things in this city. I expected everything to be more expensive than in the states because it's a huge city, but I definitely wasn't expecting the prices that I've seen. Taxes here are extremely high which causes the high prices of everything. For example, Michelle had to buy a pair of leggings. Nothing special, just a pair of black leggings. I get my leggings in the US at Target for around $10. The first store we went to the leggings were 120 reais ($75). We went to a few more stores, the average price of leggings being around 60 reais ($37).  Finally we found a pair for 35 reais, which is $22. Also when I was at the airport a few weeks ago I wanted to buy a simple salami and cheese sandwich.

I was talking with an English teacher at my school and he was giving me some examples of the ridiculous prices...

- The best of the best Nikon cameras is about $5,000 in the US. Here in Brazil the same camera is at least 20,000 reais, or $13,000.
- The teacher bought a simple watch off of Ebay for $50, but here in Brazil the same watch is over $300.
- A book about the English Language could be found for about $25 in the US, whereas here in Brazil it's between 4,000 and 5,000 reais ($2,500 to $3,100).
- A volkswagon Jetta in the US is around $30,000 (I think) and in Brazil it's about $60,000...double the price!!!

There were numerous other examples that I can't remember, but I see this prices all the time when I go out to stores. I told the teacher I was talking to that I don't understand how people can afford to live here and he said that the black market is popular because that's where things are so cheap...you just need to know where to find them and who to know. Sounds pretty sketchy but it's apparently a way of life here. Brazil encourages people to not buy imported good but it seems almost impossible to do that when things on the black market are so cheap...One thing is for sure, I will never complain about high prices in the US again!!!  Prices are extremely cheap compared to prices here.