Argentina recession leaves once-bustling Buenos Aires restaurants hustling for customers

[Tommy]

I figured it was a sign things were slowing down when I saw that Don Julio now has a 20% discount for Club La Nación members.View attachment 7511

That is interesting that even Don Julio has slowed down so much. They still probably will be ok as so many tourists go there. All my local friends stopped going there a while ago as it got too expensive. Not sure what prices are like now.

 

[GraceH]

Considering the lower cost of living was an important trade-off for some other things that lack here (this is of course a very subjective matter), it's dreamy appeal might be diminishing over some other latin american countries.

However I definitely don't mean to complain, when many people here are genuinely struggling to make the ends meet.

I witnessed how the prices of Coca-Cola increased (both in pesos and dollars) within months, given its popularity Argentinians must be very upset. Talking of restaurants and cafés, notably Starbucks recently raised its prices again just this week, having even a basic brewed coffee seems more expensive than in the US. Local coffee chains aren't offering more affordable options either.

@dai how much is Starbucks now there? I generally don’t go here in the US but actually went more there. Generally I don’t think the coffee there is too good in most places.

I am planning to come back end of this year but may go to Rio instead. Or maybe Spain.

I don’t understand how coffee is so cheap in Europe and it is really great quality.

 

[Ashton]

It doesn't just seem to be restaurants that are hurting. Is the recession over? They say it is but I keep reading about companies struggling. I understand that Argentine manufacturers in some things might not be able to compete with imported products. But does this mean the entire domestic manufacturers will be in turmoil?

I just met a girl that worked at a Papelera Estrada which makes Rivadavia Notbooks and she said her company is losing all kinds of money. She said that in previous years they were making a ton of money. I looked it up and they were swimming in money making $2.236 billion pesos the year before but in 6 months in December 2025 they LOST $1.418 Billion pesos. Sales decline of 31% and 2.5 million fewer units sold.

This seems like a big reduction! I get people cutting back on steaks and other things that aren't essential but people cutting back on school supplies because they are too expensive really seems like it's eroding consumer spending.

 

[Peabody]

It doesn't just seem to be restaurants that are hurting. Is the recession over? They say it is but I keep reading about companies struggling. I understand that Argentine manufacturers in some things might not be able to compete with imported products. But does this mean the entire domestic manufacturers will be in turmoil?

I just met a girl that worked at a Papelera Estrada which makes Rivadavia Notbooks and she said her company is losing all kinds of money. She said that in previous years they were making a ton of money. I looked it up and they were swimming in money making $2.236 billion pesos the year before but in 6 months in December 2025 they LOST $1.418 Billion pesos. Sales decline of 31% and 2.5 million fewer units sold.

This seems like a big reduction! I get people cutting back on steaks and other things that aren't essential but people cutting back on school supplies because they are too expensive really seems like it's eroding consumer spending.


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Their debt loads are tremendous. Debt surged to $42+ billion pesos. The funniest thing is I heard they want to diversify into meat processing to offset their core business erosion. 🤡 That sector is also collapsing.