Grocery Stores in Curaçao are great and have most of what you’d get at home, although there are some variations. There are:

• Large Supermarkets: these will have much of what you see at home, plus a lot of local items. Some are more “Dutch” focused, others more North American in style. Ultimately, they will seem “familiar” to you.
• Medium Sized grocery stores: these will be more like your local independent grocery store. Lots of items, but not absolutely everything. Items will be based on the needs and wants of the neighborhood.
• Tokos, or smaller grocery stores: these would be like your Kwik-E Mart…an oddly wide variety of items (food, drinks, sandals, hammers…you get the idea)

Overall, grocery stores in Curaçao are great and have most of what you’d get at home, but items may look different or have some alternate flavors (chips for instance!!)
In general, an overall grocery bill will be similar to in Canada, but individual item prices will vary. You’ll notice, for instance, cheddar cheese will be more expensive than several of what I consider “fancy Dutch cheeses.” Local Meket Studies have shown that Mangusa Hypermarket, and Centrum have the best prices, while Carrefour and Van Den Tweel are the most expensive. Sometimes, smaller markets like Bon Bini or Luna Park will have a good deal on some items.

Fruits and veggies are priced similar to home, meat is often much cheaper, but some things will cost more. It all averages out.
The only “sticker shock” item that hurts my soul is beer. Because glass bottles are heavy, the cost of transport is high, and alcohol has two different taxes on it, beer can be more than double the cost of home. A 24 pack of 235 bottles (little ones) can be $60CAD…OUCH!!

Wine and Liquor is a bit pricier, but not to the extent of beer pricing.
For more detail on alcohol, see our page on Beer and Booze in Curaçao.

Just another shopping note: We did our first trip to Goisco the other day. It’s a bit like Costco. The meat/produce items were good quality, but not a ton of selection. There are quite good deals on toilet paper, paper towel, garbage bags, large bottles of cooking oils (including olive oil), bouillon, soft drinks, and even beer!! The membership system is a bit different (and better) than Costco. The membership is optional: you can shop without it and get the good deals, but you won’t get the added discounts listed below.
For around 53naf/year, you get 5% off all purchases. For 106naf/year, you get 7% off all purchases. The best part is that you don’t have to wait for a stupid cheque to come in the mail. You get the discount immediately, and every time you shop. We like it!!

Grocery Delivery

We often get asked if there is a grocery delivery service in Curaçao. We recently found one we really like. You can check out all the details at the Pidii Grocery Service website, but here are a few keys. You just go to their website, make your order, pick a delivery time (next day if done before 7pm, I think), pay, and they do the rest. They use popular local grocery stores and suppliers, and they have very polite, courteous drivers. We tested the service ourselves. We made our order, and it was delivered the next day, as promised. They had to make one change, as the item we wanted was out of stock, so they replaced with a similar item of similar quality.
They add a small markup to the price of the item and a small delivery fee. It is certainly more expensive than doing groceries yourself, but for good, quality service, people deserve to get paid!! Honestly, we were very impressed. If you don’t feel like shopping, or want your vacation rental’s fridge stocked for your arrival, I highly recommend Pidii!!