The many options for grocery shopping in Loja Ecuador

 

Visitors to Loja from North America are sure to notice, and may even celebrate, the uniqueness and differences of the cultural fixtures of everyday life here. They are also very often surprised by how familiar much of what happens in Loja, the last Ecuadorian city before the border with Peru, seems to them. Something as simple as food shopping has many similarities to the US and Canada but also many more differences to the experience.

Most food shoppers in North America head for a grocery store chain or big box store for their weekly food supply. Quite a few also buy groceries with an online app and have them delivered. Loja has all of these available and they are quite popular with expat residents of the city and surrounding area. Rest assured that you can carry on with your food shopping in the manner to which you are accustomed without missing a beat. This includes paying in US dollars because Ecuador uses US currency and you can put it on your debit or credit card in the national grocery store chains mentioned above.

Here is where the similarities end but the wide array of ways to shop for your meal ingredients begin! Convenience is definitely a feature of food shopping in Loja and other Ecuadorian cities beginning with the neighborhood ‘tienda’ or what most North Americans think of as a corner store or ‘bodega’. Open for long hours seven days a week, this type of store is never more than a block or two from where you are and has all the basics in case you find you are unexpectedly out of something in the midst of preparing a dish or run short of time to go to a larger market. If you are staying in one of Loja’s suburbs, you are very likely to see a steady stream of people going out early in the morning and returning with fresh pan de dulce buns from the tienda to go with the province's famous ‘cafe filtrado’ comprising the continental breakfast with which most Lojanos start their day.

Almost every suburban neighborhood and many of the urban barrios have a weekly Feria Libre or ‘free market.” A few streets may be closed, a section of a public park, or church parking lot will lend space for any fresh food vendor, free of charge, to sell to the local residents for the day. This is a great place to get to know the sellers who have meat, produce, homemade fresh cheese, baked goods, and even beer for sale. Repeat customers will often receive a ‘yapa’ or free sample of something the vendors would like you to try. Feria Libre are very much like the periodic farmer’s markets that spring up once a week or monthly in North America.

Similar to North America grocery shopping but also quite different are the many locally owned ‘supermercados’ or super markets and free standing specialty food stores. There may be at least one supermarket in each parroquia (parish), which are the jurisdictions knitted together into the city of Loja. There will also be a surprising number of specialty food stores in each neighborhood. These may be stand-alone butcher shops, fruit stands, small bakeries, liquor stores, and other small shops that specialize in one kind of food item. This kind of small shop specialization in Loja extends beyond food to things like stationary, cleaning supplies, hardware, and so on. If you are looking for something, Loja has a store for that!

The most popular places to food shop are the municipality run mercados or public markets open seven days a week. This is where most Lojanos buy their fresh produce, dairy, meat, and seafood. Two of them are large and stock a mind-boggling selection of familiar and tropical fruits and veggies, plants, and even live animals. If you would like a live-action peek into the central mercado and a national grocery chain in Loja, be sure to check out our video [below].  This will also give you a sense of food prices in Loja compared with North America as will our blog on the cost of food.

If you would like more information about food shopping in Loja or any of the grocery stores we have mentioned, contact us by email, or phone/WhatsApp at 593-098-674-5994.

Life In Loja is registered under Ecuador’s department of intellectual rights as of 2022.