# Moving near Lerma, Mexico



## Donyboy (Nov 18, 2015)

We are Amercians looking to relocate to the Lerma, Mexico area. Interested in finding out best places to shop for furniture, household items, groceries, etc. We have found several housing options already so that is not a concern. Any advice on other items that we should bring with us from the states, that can't be found down there, would be GREATLY appreciated.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Well, Donyboy, if the Lerma I assume you refer to is that town located in the municipality of Toluca, the capital of the state of Mexico (EDOMEX) just outside of vast Mexico City, the Mexican Federal District with some 20 Million inhabitants in the metropolitan área, many quite well-to-do to say the least,,it seems to me that any kind of furniture and other household ítems you may desire within a reasonable distance of your new home will be available for sale once you do your homework but the retail opportunities in this huge metrópolis are so varied that i would stop worrying about what to bring to that área beyond yourself. We have lived in Metropoitan Guadalajara, Mexico´s second largest city at several million inhabitants for 15 years and this Alabama boy can find anything I want here including cheese-grits if that was what I was seeking.

Do bear in mind that the town you have chosen is at a quite high altitude, over 8,000 feet, and can be bracingly cold at any time of the year so take a heavy sweater. This ain´t the tropics. 

Good luck with your new place of residence.


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## Donyboy (Nov 18, 2015)

Thank you for your response. Yes, It is Toluca area. We travel to Mexico twice a year for vacation but moving there takes on a new meaning. Was just worried about the things we wouldn't be able to get there that we needed to bring with us. I've been told, Metapec(?) has an outdoor market with great furniture deals. Told by others who were bakers, that you can't find a lot of cooking spices, etc. We are probably not bringing our household goods and will start out with nothing. Therefore will be needing to save on stuff when we can. I was told to use superrama and Costco. Thanks again, for such a quick response. Any other hints, would be greatly appreciate.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Costco and Superama may be your most expensive options. Everything you will need is available, but you must know how to ask in Spanish and be willing to shop around. Every city has “districts“ which specialize in certain types of products. You will shop for furniture in a different part of town than if shopping for plumbing fixtures, automobiles, clothing, fabrics, etc., etc. It is also important to realize that, in Mexico, a big store has a big overhead and therefore, higher prices than a smaller store, where you may also be able to negotiate. Walmart is not the best place to find low prices in Mexico, for example.


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

*Spices?*



Donyboy said:


> Thank you for your response. Yes, It is Toluca area. We travel to Mexico twice a year for vacation but moving there takes on a new meaning. Was just worried about the things we wouldn't be able to get there that we needed to bring with us. I've been told, Metapec(?) has an outdoor market with great furniture deals. Told by others who were bakers, that you can't find a lot of cooking spices, etc. We are probably not bringing our household goods and will start out with nothing. Therefore will be needing to save on stuff when we can. I was told to use superrama and Costco. Thanks again, for such a quick response. Any other hints, would be greatly appreciate.


We have a Mexican friend in Toluca who runs/ran a spice store on Calle Rayon in Centro, a few blocks from the Cosmovitral. Naturally, it's oriented towards Mexican spices and cooking, such as moles and chiles. But we haven't corresponded nor seen him in several years. You can find almost every imaginable spice on the shelves of major supermarkets, such as Soriana, Superama, Chedraui. Then there are undoubtely spice stands in local mercados, often at bargain prices, but sold in bulk.
Disclosure: I haven't been in any Toluca area mercados except the mercado of Santiago Tianguistengo, and that was in 2001.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

In support of the previous two prior posters, let me say that we reside in two small and disparate cities distant from each other both geographically and culturally. We more-or-less divide our time between the two annually with a few months here and a few months there. The towns are Ajijic, Jalisco and San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Jalisco is one of Mexico´s wealthiest and most cosmopolitan states and Chiapas is hands-down Mexico´s poorest state beating out the state's also destitute southern states of Oaxaca and anarchic and violent Guerrero. But, both small cities are within about an hour's drive of the large state capitals of Guadalajara and Tuxtla Gutiérrez which are cities with large and varied inventories of all sorts of furniture and electronics plus herbs, spices and foodstuffs to appeal to any appetite.

It happens that I grew up in Alabama and my wife in Paris and we spent the last 20 or so years in San Francisco and environs before retiring to Mexico 15 years ago. We are demanding clients of our Mexican suppliers whatever we may be seeking to purchase here in this country and, here is the acid test:

After 15 years here, our cupboards are laden with herbs and spices of great variety purchased near our homes here: we sleep,watch televisión and use computers while seated on 100% Mexican furniture and the only things I can locate that I brought in from the United States back in 2001 are some great, if unexplicably stained, porno magazines and that Captain Marvel Decoder Ring from the 50s I never figured out how use.


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

*Hound Dog*



Hound Dog said:


> In support of the previous two prior posters, let me say that we reside in two small and disparate cities distant from each other both geographically and culturally. We more-or-less divide our time between the two annually with a few months here and a few months there. The towns are Ajijic, Jalisco and San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Jalisco is one of Mexico´s wealthiest and most cosmopolitan states and Chiapas is hands-down Mexico´s poorest state beating out the state's also destitute southern states of Oaxaca and anarchic and violent Guerrero. But, both small cities are within about an hour's drive of the large state capitals of Guadalajara and Tuxtla Gutiérrez which are cities with large and varied inventories of all sorts of furniture and electronics plus herbs, spices and foodstuffs to appeal to any appetite.
> 
> It happens that I grew up in Alabama and my wife in Paris and we spent the last 20 or so years in San Francisco and environs before retiring to Mexico 15 years ago. We are demanding clients of our Mexican suppliers whatever we may be seeking to purchase here in this country and, here is the acid test:
> 
> After 15 years here, our cupboards are laden with herbs and spices of great variety purchased near our homes here: we sleep,watch televisión and use computers while seated on 100% Mexican furniture and the only things I can locate that I brought in from the United States back in 2001 are some great, if unexplicably stained, porno magazines and that Captain Marvel Decoder Ring from the 50s I never figured out how use.


Hound Dog; you are one of a kind. Thanks for the continuing chuckles.


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