Argentine wholesaler supermarket Diarco has launched its own dollar exchange rate — and it was above the blue dollar on its first day.
Customers can now pay for their purchases, which are priced in pesos, with cash dollars. Diarco uses its new “Diarco dollar” exchange rate to convert them. The only requirement is that they must spend at least the value of the bill on goods in the store. This means shoppers cannot make a small nominal purchase and get their peso change at this advantageous exchange rate. If their purchase costs more than the dollars they have, they must pay the remainder in pesos.
Diarco will publish the exchange rate it is offering every day on its website and in stores. On Monday, it was offering dollars at 1,400 — 55 pesos per dollar above the blue (informal market) rate.
The supermarket is not picky about the condition of the greenbacks. It will accept bills that are “big face, small face, wrinkled, old, stained or drawn on,” the promotional material says. (In Argentina, older US$100 bills on which the portrait of Benjamin Franklin is smaller can be rejected or offered a poorer exchange rate in the informal market, although it is still legal tender.) It will also take bills of any denomination.
Diarco does, however, reserve the right to reject “mutilated” bills. Moreover, the Diarco dollar is only available at its wholesaler locations, not the smaller neighborhood Diarco Barrio branches.
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The wholesaler’s announcement comes in the midst of a deep recession that is forcing many Argentines to sell their cash dollar savings to make it to the end of the month. While inflation has cooled in recent months, prices nonetheless rose by 4% in July alone, the INDEC statistical bureau announced last week. The yearly inflation rate was 263%.
Consumption in supermarkets nosedived in May by 10% inter-annually, according to INDEC. Private estimates suggest the situation has worsened since. Supermarkets are launching special offers to tempt shoppers through the doors, often with digital wallets and bank accounts. In Argentine supermarkets, it’s increasingly common to see printed signs describing percentage discounts with specific accounts on particular days and ways of paying for groceries in installments.