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2006-10-04
Life in L.A., II
It wasn't hard for me to imagine it would be expensive living in L.A. The question is how. And how much more.
Different people have different ideas. Some say everything is so much more expensive. Some say that only housings are more expensive. Some say everything is more expensive, except for eating out.
The truth? Well, everything is expensive here. But comparing to the living standard here, the restaurants are very reasonably priced. And you can't beat the variety. Living very far away from the Chinatown area, I can still find plenty of average to good Chinese restaurants within 15 minutes walking distance.
Apart from eating out, however, the prices are really insane here. For example, milk and frozen food are 30% more expensive. And I still haven't found a cheap grocery store (other than Chinese groceries that are at least half an hour away). I really miss HEB, where I could buy enough bread for breakfasts and lunches for 1.5 weeks for only 59 cents.
All these make me understand why Costco is so much more successful in California than in Texas. If you can find cheap retail stores like HEB, you wouldn't need to buy from wholesale places like Costco. Now that I'm in California and not having a huge family, I need to plan what I can buy in large quantity in Costco and what I need to buy from nearby grocery stores...
Different people have different ideas. Some say everything is so much more expensive. Some say that only housings are more expensive. Some say everything is more expensive, except for eating out.
The truth? Well, everything is expensive here. But comparing to the living standard here, the restaurants are very reasonably priced. And you can't beat the variety. Living very far away from the Chinatown area, I can still find plenty of average to good Chinese restaurants within 15 minutes walking distance.
Apart from eating out, however, the prices are really insane here. For example, milk and frozen food are 30% more expensive. And I still haven't found a cheap grocery store (other than Chinese groceries that are at least half an hour away). I really miss HEB, where I could buy enough bread for breakfasts and lunches for 1.5 weeks for only 59 cents.
All these make me understand why Costco is so much more successful in California than in Texas. If you can find cheap retail stores like HEB, you wouldn't need to buy from wholesale places like Costco. Now that I'm in California and not having a huge family, I need to plan what I can buy in large quantity in Costco and what I need to buy from nearby grocery stores...
Labels: LA
