The dark brown faux leather jacket gleamed like new. “It’s from Shein! Thirty-three dollars [€28], that’s really cheap,” said Andrea Garcia, a 33-year-old human resources manager, at a birthday party in Buenos Aires. Her friend Sol Torres nodded in agreement. Dressed in a black jacket with white piping, also ordered from the Chinese online retailer, Torres, a 32-year-old English teacher, scrolled through photos of her latest purchases. “A black dress, a white sweater, a miniskirt, an umbrella, a storage bag, a tray, novelty erasers, stickers. All for 170,000 pesos [€106 at the time of purchase], it’s amazing! Here, what can you buy for that, two items? It makes me angry,” she said. She was referring to Argentina’s historically high prices for most consumer goods, like clothing, appliances, electronics, furniture and home decor.
Like many other Argentinians from the upper and middle classes, the two women have embraced international online shopping with enthusiasm. “Argentinians now have access to cheaper, more varied and sometimes higher-quality products without having to wait for local brands to catch up to international trends,” said Alejandra Boland, an international trade consultant. She said that in Argentina, this new way of shopping is perceived as “a kind of fascination and freedom.”
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