It becomes a ritual, whether you live in the United States or are just visiting. You gather the various boxes from Amazon, ordered by a variety of people, and pull out your list of requests. Because if you're flying from anywhere in the United States to Brazil to see friends or family, you will inevitably have a list of requests. For my husband and I, it's usually Centrum for my mother-in-law, contact solution for my sister-in-law, and a scattering of other items. My sister-in-law always asks for mouthwash, but we never bring it and take chocolate instead as a consolation prize. And then there are Amazon packages and a flurry of last-minute requests from extended family that my husband negotiates.
Image: Dave Nartin
As of September, Brazilians have spent $18.9 billion abroad this year. In 2012, Brazilians spent over $9 billion in the United States alone. That's because a combination of taxes and other elements of the "Brazil cost," like infrastructure problems, continue to make many consumer goods in Brazil more expensive than in some other countries. Plus, some believe that foreign goods are still of higher quality than Brazilian goods, a perception that is sometimes justified, depending on the product. And even though e-commerce is expanding in Brazil, particularly in niche areas like baby products and athletic shoes, Brazilians who can afford to often opt to buy these products abroad.
Despite Brazil's heralded growth and an economy that's one of the largest in the world, many Brazilians try to take as much back with them as they can whenever they travel abroad. Brazil used to have a much more closed economy, when it was actually difficult to purchase things like computers in country. But even now, high prices continue to drive a portion of Brazilian consumers to take their big shopping sprees abroad. When Sony announced last month that the Playstation 4 would cost R$4,000 in Brazil, around 4.5 times the price in the United States, some calculated that it would be cheaper to fly to the U.S. to buy it. And with big-ticket electronic items, that is sometimes the case.
Through an informal survey I did on the blog and social media, here are a selection of things from A to Z that Brazilians have bought while in the United States, or have asked others to purchase and bring back for them. (Not all requests were granted.) What I hoped to capture is that we're not just talking about electronics like iPads and cameras; it's everything you could imagine.
- adult diapers
- Apple products
- artificial flowers
- aspirin
- baby bottles
- baby clothes (in one case, bought before getting pregnant or having children)
- baby food
- baby stroller
- bagels
- baseball bat
- bedsheets
- boat anchor
- boat motor (part of one)
- bicycle (bikes in Brazil are among the most expensive in the world)
- camera
- car wax
- children's birthday decorations
- coffee, in K-cups
- deadbolts
- deodorant
- desktop computer
- Dickie's work pants
- DJ mixdeck
- dolls (two-feet tall)
- drum plate
- electric breast pump
- electric guitar
- fabric bandages
- flute (which cost $1,000 and was stolen a year later)
- garbage disposal
- glucosamine-enhanced dog treats
- hands-free breast pump
- high SPF sunblock
- Icy hot joint wraps
- jewelry-making materials
- Johnnie Walker Red
- Kellog's Smacks
- laptop
- lawnmower
- luggage
- macaroni and cheese
- magazines
- makeup
- marshmallows
- Metamucil
- M&Ms
- pacificiers
- paper products (paper towels, napkins, tissues, and even toilet paper)
- perfume
- Persian rug
- Peter Pan peanut butter
- photography equipment
- popcorn machine
- post-partum hip reduction belt
- pot belly stove
- printer
- Rogaine
- sausage maker
- saxophone
- shower heads
- sneakers
- stereo amplifier (weighing 20 kg)
- sunglasses
- sweatshirt
- tattoo machine
- toothpaste
- underwear
- vacuum
- VCR
- vibrator
- Victoria's Secret beauty products
- video games
- video game console
- vitamins
- walker
- watches
- wedding dress
- whey protein powder (in those huge containers)
What? Toilet paper!!!! Come on!!! I happen to find toilet paper in Brazil much better than the ones in the US. Go figure!!!
Posted by: Ray | November 10, 2013 at 08:06 PM
Well done, Rachel. The question is not is on the list, but is there anything NOT on the list? Americans sometimes simply do not appreciate our consumer choices available not only in the stores, but on-line. More ironic is how many of these items are so much less expensive here. Maybe you can tell us if there were particular products that were overwhelming popular requests?
Posted by: david | November 11, 2013 at 08:17 AM
E-commerce is being seriously negligent. Net-based suppliers could reap substantial wealth by providing comparatively inexpensive means for Brazilians to obtain the products on your lengthy US vacation shopping list. All they'd have to do is price the larger-ticket products somewhere between Brazil and US cost. The essential idea would be providing an online price that's cheaper than the US price plus round trip ticket price.
Posted by: Ian Nieves | November 18, 2013 at 07:55 PM
Whoever posted that happens to find Brazilian TP better than American has a whole different view of TP. Probably this person likes disintegrating Tp while wiping the butt or even blowing your nose. One of the reasons I will NOT live in Brazil Is the national quality of their best tp called Neve, it is an expensive crappy paper. Even public restrooms here have better TP than in Brazil, lets be honest.
Posted by: Naynay | December 08, 2013 at 02:04 PM
It's true! Paper brands here are so inferior! I could see how someone would go to extreme lengths and buy Toilet paper abroad. I think the most requested items I have seen from people here (mostly women who will probably never get a chance to go abroad because they are cleaning people who make the equivalent of about $10-$20 USD per day) are Victorias Secret lotions. For some reason, this particular brand of lotion has taken off here and even the poorest of poor are sucked into the 'fancy' allure of Victorias Secret as a 'cosmetics' company. Many of them are not even aware that Victoria's Secret is first and foremost a lingerie store. Brazilians are also HUGE on brands --- even tacky ones. Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, GAP... in the GAP stores in Brazil, you can expect to pay at least three times the normal USD cost for jeans or the coveted GAP sweatshirt! Suckers! And it doesn't stop at retail! 'American' like desserts or so they think like cupcakes are also ridiculously overpriced, and you must consider that with all this overpriced stuff, the minimum wage is not even $200 USD per month! Try swallowing that and paying $5 for a 1.5 Liter of Coke or a $10 big Mac!
Posted by: Danielle R | February 02, 2016 at 07:43 AM