Ecuador: The Everything is a Dollar Country

Ecuador dollarized in September, 2000. And, yes, dollarized is a verb, even if spellcheck disagrees. In late 1999, inflation in Ecuador was out of control; in a matter of months, the value of the sucre, the Ecuadorian currency, plummeted, and the exchange rate skyrocketed from 6,000 sucres to $1 to 25,000 sucres to $1. People were making frantic runs on the banks, and several large financial institutions shuttered overnight. The exchange rate was expected to double again if something drastic was not done. But, when the Ecuadorian President, Jamil Mahuad, announced his plan to do away with the sucre and replace it with the US dollar (as had been done successfully in nearby Panama), huge nationwide strikes broke out. On January 21, 2000, thousands of protesters marched on the capital, took over the legislative palace, and forced the president to resign. After two days of pseudo-military rule, the presidency was turned over to Gustavo Noboa, who, despite serious ongoing opposition, went forward with dollarization later that year.

I was living here during the 1999 financial crisis, the 2000 coup, and the process of dollarization. In fact, in mid January 2000, I was stranded for several days in transit with all my personal belongings due to the nationwide protests. That was a memorable week! I also remember later that year holding workshops to teach Ecuadorians how to recognize and manipulate US coins. Many people found it totally bizarre that a dime was worth more than a nickel (it's so much smaller!), and Ecuadorians really struggled with quarters. There was something about the quantity of a fourth of a dollar that was challenging conceptually. I also remember people being paranoid about creased bills. For months, people literally carried dollar bills in between pages of books so as not to wrinkle or tear them. Anyone receiving payment was intensely critical of any sign of mark or defect on a bill. As such, perfectly good, slightly folded bills were often turned down. It was explained to me that because Ecuador could no longer print their own replacement bills, a damaged bill became a risk for the person holding the bill. Purportedly, no bank would accept a damaged bill because they had no way to send said bill to the national government to replace it (as would happen in the US).

Fast forward 20+ years, and thank goodness, no one carries paper bills inside books anymore. But they still use dollars and cents. Change is strangely hard to come by, and one has to be creative about when and where to pull out a $20 bill in order to avoid a glare, a huff, and a "I don't have change" comment from the recipient. Interestingly, Ecuador has a seemingly endless supply of Sacajawea $1 coins, Kennedy half dollars, and other rare coins that we hardly ever see in the US. Of note, by international rules, Ecuador, while not allowed to print their own dollars, can mint their own coins, so they use an interchangeable mix of US coins and Ecuadorian coins, which are the same size, shape and color as US coins but with different images.

This brings me to the "Everything is a Dollar Country" comment that Paul made the other day when we were shopping in La Maná. "Sometimes," he said, "I feel like I am living in the Everything is a Dollar Country". I chuckled and then began to think seriously about his comment. He's so right. Everything is a dollar here! It's kind of nice and transparent as a foreigner, but also strange and disconcerting -- not unlike the feeling you may have at the dollar store, in which you know you are overpaying for one thing while getting a great deal on the next. And where you often find yourself wondering, is this actually worth a dollar?

Do you want. . .

Sliced green mango with salt and lemon? $1 per bag.

Limes? $1 for 10.

A cup of fresh fruit juice? $1 per cup.

Bread? $1 for 6 rolls.

Papi Pollo? $1 per serving.

Eggs? $1 for 7.

A screen protector for your cellphone (in Spanish, called a mica)? $1 each.

Fresh doughnut holes? $1 a cup (including a squirt of sugar from a ketchup squeeze bottle)

Fried pork with plátano, $1 a serving.

Roses? $1 for 4.

A haircut in Quito: $1.

A semi-functional dust pan? $1

Moto-taxi ride across town? $1 for the trip.

At the bath and kitchen supply store, a spatula costs $1, as does a cheese grater, a paring knife, and a soap dish.

In Ecuador, the unit price for practically everything is $1. The price never changes, but the quantity of items you get for the $1 does, depending on who you are, who's selling it, where you are, what season it is, etc. And this is different from how we usually think about buying things in the States.

Let me try an example. Let's say I go to the market to buy fruit and veggies. My shopping list includes something like: 3 lbs of mandarins, 2 lbs of tomatoes, 2 lbs of bananas, 1 lb of onions, 1 bunch of spinach, 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 pineapple, 2 heads of garlic, etc. But at the market, I have to switch it around; rather than ask for 2 pounds of tomatoes, I have to inquire how many tomatoes I get for $1 (currently 6), then request the number of $1 units I want. Mathematically, 6 tomatoes should $1 translates to ~$0.17/tomato, right? No, here you can get them in dollar increments: 6 ($1) or 12 ($2) or at best 9 for $1.50. $1.33 doesn't get you 8. This same type of calculation is applied to everything else in the market: strawberries (a random amount in a bag is $1. If you disapprove of the quantity, give a scornful glance, and a few more may be added to the bag), pineapples (usually $1 each, if small $1 for 2), and garlic ($1 for a hefty bag).

As prices fluctuate, the quantity of product per dollar changes, instead of the total. The first few weeks here, we'd pick up 6 eggs for $1, but now it's consistently 7 for $1. And if you just want one egg, good luck, that is definitely not how the sales person does her calculations. If you want a dozen, it flusters them too. $2 of eggs (that would mean 14 eggs this week) works fine. When buying breads, which generally come as small personal rolls, each bread doesn't have its own individual unit price; rather you get 6 breads because 6 breads is a dollar's worth, regardless of the type (e.g. empanada or chocolate bread or plain salt bread).

To be sure, I am exaggerating a little. There are definitely more than a few things in Ecuador that do NOT cost a dollar: a gallon of gas ($2.40 for regular, $5.10 supreme), shoes ($10 for fancy sandals for Brynna, $20-30 for adult shoes), almuerzo ($2.50 each), a ticket to the water park ($3 per person). All joking aside, friends here complain that prices of consumables have increased markedly in the last year, and particularly prices of agriculture products, thereby disproportionately impacting poor farmers. These price hikes drove thousands of Ecuadorians to the streets in June for the biggest national protests in decades. We will see what the next few months bring as the federal government and Indigenous and rural leaders look for solutions.

On a side note, we made several vendors super excited the first few weeks we were here because we had $1 bills with us from home, which apparently are rare birds in Ecuador. Several times when we used a $1 bill, the recipient inspected it, marveled at its novelty and slipped it under the clear counter-protector rather than into their change drawer. Turns out they do still like to keep those flat and perfect.