When you first move to Costa Rica it can be a challenge to get to know all the many places to shop for groceries, appliances, furnishings, hardware and other items of a nature you will need to just supply your home on a daily basis or simply to maintain a luxury home in Costa Rica.
We are compiling a list of links to various sources of good and services that may be helpful to you, as well as other resources and web sites we have found useful in our research regarding luxury home purchasing and upkeep. This is a work in process so keep checking back, the list will keep expanding week by week.
We have broken the links down into categories to make it easier for you to find what you may be looking for.
- General Groceries and Home Supplies
- Auto Mercado - An upmarket chain of grocery stores that carry many International brands of products from the US, Canada and Europe. They have an in-house bakery in most stores and a good selection of international wines.
- Mas X Menos - A little less upmarket than Auto Mercado but none-the-less a nice supermarket with plenty of choice products to choose from.
- PriceSmart - If you are from the US or Canada you will recognize PriceSmart as being very similar to a Costco or Sam's Club. It is a huge place filled with just about everything you can imagine - TV's, fridges, computers, fruits, veggies, laundry detergent...you got the idea. If you can't find it in PriceSmart it probably doesn't exist. It's a great place to go and stock up on all the consumables and browse around for an hour to see what's new.
- Hipermas - Part of Walmart Centroamerica, Hipermas is becoming more and more like a typical US style WalMart every day - gigantic and filled with just about everything you need for the home from food to clothing to appliances.
- Hardware Stores (Ferreterias)
- EPA - a large hardware store with 3 locations, Curridabat, Escazu and on the east side of San Jose. This i actually an extension of a chain from Mexico, which expanded into Costa Rica starting in 2005. It is similar in look to a US style Home Depot. It has quite a decent stock of home building materials and fixtures, everything from plumbing supplies, electrical fittings, floor tiles, cabinet hardware, doors, tools, gardening supplies, paints and much more. It's a fun place to wander for an hour if you love working around the house.
- Abonos Agro - One of the older and better known hardware stores in Costa Rica, Abonos Agro has it's main store located in the highly industrialized area of La Uruca just west of San Jose. They have recently upgraded their showrooms and continue to modernize their facilities as more competition moves into Costa Rica due to the phenomenal growth of the real estate market over the past few years.
- Torneca - Nuts, bolts, screws, drills, welding supplies, staple guns and tool kits...that just about covers the majority of what Torneca does. What they are famous for is carrying the largest supply of nuts, bolts and screws in the country. If they don't have it, it probably can't be found in Costa Rica.
- Web Resources
