Costco Mexico vs USA 🇲🇽🇺🇸

[Matt-lpde]

It's illegal in Mexico to not have accessible jalapeños to put on all food items

[pink]

I love that the toucan is just barely cropped out

[cholula]

It's not illegal to have mascots in cereal boxes. It is illegal to have a mascot in a food product if it is deemed unhealthy

[unpiratamas]

It seems cheap but you have to look at it from the perspective of Mexico, in Mexico the minimum monthly salary is around 400 US dollars

[BolognaRat-gw]

If you didn’t know the reason for Mexico not allowing cereal characters is that these characters tend to attract children and encourage them to prefer and consume unhealthy foods. By removing such marketing strategies, the Mexican government hopes to reduce the consumption of foods that contribute to childhood obesity, a significant public health issue in the country.

Edit: Even though this law is beneficial, it is up to the parents to decide whether to include sugary cereals in their child's diet. Even if there isn't a mascot, these cereals are still available. Coca-Cola has had a significant impact on Mexico, influencing public health, the economy, and even social and cultural practices. The main one being:

Public Health Impact
- Obesity and Diabetes: Mexico has one of the world's highest per capita consumption rates of Coca-Cola, with many people consuming it daily. This high intake of sugary beverages contributes to rising obesity rates and related conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and dental problems. In some parts of Mexico, Coca-Cola consumption has been directly linked to health crises.
- Sugary Beverage Epidemic: Sugary drinks, led by Coca-Cola, have been identified as a significant factor behind Mexico’s diabetes epidemic. In response, the government has introduced sugar taxes and other measures to discourage consumption, but the damage to public health is still evident.

[MrArichG]

Mexico Costco for the win and Justified!!

[Gabiiwis]

They also banned cartoon characters on food packaging in Chile, it's mostly to prevent children from being attracted to unhealthy food and begging their parents to buy it for them, I've also heard that Mexico started adding mandatory warning labels to food packaging in case they contain high levels of sugar/sodium/fats/calories just like in Chile, over here in Chile this has motivated food companies to change the recipes of their products to have lower levels of said stuff so they have less warning labels, in fact some products went from having 3 warning labels to 0 without altering the flavor lol

[shepardsinsequence]

They will also rent you a car that has a Manual transmission…. In case you need to learn

[corazonenalmibar]

It's not only on cereal boxes, the little hexagons on the top right corner mean that the product has an excess of something unhealthy, for example sugar, or trans fat, etc, etc. They don't allow any cartoon or mascot figure to appear in the package of said products in order to dissuade the kids from choosing or buying unhealthy products.

[amolasmanualidadesu-u]

For people mad about the cereal characters:

Companies are allowed to use cartoons in their products as marketing as long as the product meets certain nutritional requirements. You can notice in the upper right corner of the cereal some black octagons, those indicate if the product has high amounts of sugar/calories/saturated fats/sodium/etc. If the product, in this case cereal, has at least one of those octagon labels, they are not allowed to use cartoons, because it means it’s not “healthy food”, therefore preventing kids from being directed towards unhealthy options. If it doesn’t have any octagon label, they are allowed to use cartoons.

To sum up, as long as the cereal (or any other food, particularly snacks) doesn’t have an excess amount of unhealthy ingredients, they can use cartoons. So naturally, some brands decided to have two versions of their cereal, an “unhealthy” version (with no cartoons) and a “healthy” version (with cartoons). As you can probably imagine, the healthy versions of the cereals aren’t as enjoyable 😂.

[anamariamalo]

hahaha I couldn't spot laughing at the "duende" part

[omarmier]

I've been living in México my entire life, one thing that Costco did a year back, was that they limited the amount of pies you could buy, for example, it was limited to 2 lemon pies per person, because in México some people make a living out of reselling Costco pies and cakes (they usually resell them by slice, and for example, if a lemon pie costs about 7 dollars, they resell the slice with a price of 50 pesos, about 3 dollars, and usually, the divide the pie in about 12 slices).

People complained about that regulation of 2 pies/cakes per person, so, the solution, they brought their entire family so that each one could buy 2 pies/cakes, and one member of the family ended up with 15+ pies/cakes.

Because of the increase of people buying just 2 pies/cakes, Costco took away that regulation, and now, anybody can buy as many pies/cakes as they want.

This happened in my town, in Morelos.

Edit.
Every mexican here knows that this happened in Cuernavaca, la ciudad de la eterna brincadera, digoooo, primavera.

[charliechop]

as a mexican thats true, mostly.

the eye exam requires, usually, an appointment. and yes, its free.

[charlesfv]

Afortunadamente, la fuerza del peso mexicano ha contribuido en los precios de varios productos y servicios americanos. Saludos desde Puebla 💙

[TheStormyClouds]

I find it funny that Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes still have parts of the characters on the box. Feels like the legal equivalent of "I'm not touching youuu!"

[thb]

Executive member is $55.85 be worth to go there so it auto renews at that price every year

[MaheerKibria]

Eye exams are free in a lot of countries. Glasses are also cheaper in a lot of countries outside of the USA. Insurance companies have really jacked up the prices of eye exams and glasses in the states. I literally just bought a pair of glasses with high index because of my power and astigmatism for like $50 in Japan and the eye exam was included for free. The same style of glasses would cost me over $100 if I bought them online at a discount place and closer to $150 at Costco

[AsianpopLover]

A note about international memberships. While they are cheaper, they most likely will not work at Costco US gas stations. I know because I renewed mine in Korea and for the rest of the year that I was in the US I had to call an attendent to scan their card before I could get gas.

[cine]

In fact jalapeño is the lowest tier pepper in Mexico because its not very spicy and doesn't taste much, however, if it is pickled it gains flavor and can be preserved for long. That's why it's almost exclusive as a dressing for very specific foods like the hotdogs

[Roidgy]

No unhealthy food is allowed to have a mascot because it is assumed to be marketing towards children.

However I very much disagree and firmly believe Carlos V was directly aimed at adult women. Just look at him.