September the 1st, 2024 – The story about Croatian prices, particularly along the coast, is far from a new one. Visitors continue to be shocked by them, with some wondering how people even manage to live in Dalmatia anymore.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Marko Rudela is a Croat who has been living across the pond in the USA, more specifically the expensive state of California for more than fifty years now. He is engaged in the construction business and his monthly income is a shocking thirty times higher than the average Croatian national. Despite this, however, he was still completely stunned by Croatian prices during his most recent visit to the country’s coastline.
“Listen, I don’t know how people here can manage to live normally at all when they’re earning about 800 to 1000 euros net each month. For example, from here you go to the square, and when you buy a coffee or a bottle of water, it’s more expensive than it is in Beverly Hills, in Disneyland”, said Rudela who is originally from Zadar, reports HRT.
He was also in Germany recently, where the wages have historically always been far higher than they are on average in Croatia, and yet the German prices of most items are lower than Croatian prices.
“For example, some everyday products like soap cost about dollar, so about 1.50 euros in Germany. How is it that the exact same product at Croatian prices is about 5 euros?!” asks Rudela.
“If I were to convert that into the former currency, the kuna, then I wouldn’t even buy bread, I’d have to manage without bread,” explained another person, Josip, who is utterly floored by Croatian prices.
Burek costs two euros, corn on the cob one and a half euros, a “macchiato”, and the cheaper one, one and a half euros. Ten-euro garlic doesn’t drive away vampires, it drives away customers. Is there anything left being sold in Croatia for a single euro?”
“Potatoes that used to cost three kuna, now cost three euros,” pointed out Mila from Zadar, who has also been left scratching her head at current Croatian prices for very basic and formerly cheap items.
Then, you have the other side of the coin. Croats from the continental part of the country will usually be heard saying how easy it is for Dalmatians to deal with prices like these because they lazily sit back and do nothing but harvest money from tourism trees during the summer months. That, however, isn’t always the case. Not everyone has apartments and houses inherited from dead uncles to earn a small fortune on. Many also don’t live from tourism, and yet here they are, being expected to pay for everyday food and other basic items like the richest Europeans do.
