Costalegre Fish Market near SuperLake-disappointed

We were going to buy some salmon from Costalegre Fish Market.  The posted sign on the wall and also in the frozen case over the salmon was 290 pesos.  There were smaller and largerer pieces of fish.  We picked out one of the larger pieces and they said the larger pieces were 150 pesos more a kilo.  We said the sign says 290 for salmon and it doesn't specify the size.  However they insisted if you buy a larger piece the price would be higher.  They sell it by the size. So we put the salmon back and walked out.  We will not return.

The price of salmon has doubled in the past year. I used to buy those frozen fillets from Walmart. Last year they averaged about $250 pesos per fillet. This year it is $500 pesos. I believe this is occurring NOB too. Salmon stocks must be getting low again.

Yes - interesting - the Orcas are getting super smart in Alaska. They have learned how remove fish from the long lines (for wild caught salmon) without getting hooked. They are teaching other pods how to do this. The Orca population has also boomed in recent years. The U.S. exchange rate hasn't helped either.

Hmmmm.......maybe the Orca's are invested in the salmon market. Smart indeed........

CanuckBob wrote:Hmmmm.......maybe the Orca's are invested in the salmon market. Smart indeed........

This cracked me up!

I'm wondering if the difference in cost is between farmed salmon and wild salmon. I can tell you that wild salmon can get pretty big... hubby caught a 30 pounder at River's Inlet in B.C. and I do believe they get even bigger than that.
Farmed salmon would be pathetically small by comparison. Staff may not know or understand the difference...kinda like basa and bass.

I agree salmon prices have gone up but if you buy salmon at WalMart, big slab or smaller slab, it is still the same price per kilo. Also at Pacifico Pescadora west of Ajijic all of their fish is priced per kilo, big or small. I under stand different sizes of shrimp are priced according to size but the PRICE is clearly marked over the bin that they are in. Putting all of the salmon in one frozen bin with a price of 290 posted clearly over the bin, then saying oh no, since this is a bigger piece, we are charging quite a big more, done. No more business from me. I don't do bate and switch. I was really insulted. If you are going to charge people by the size of fish, Put up a big sign, the bigger the fish, the more we charge.

I grew up in Northern B.C., in a small town, Terrace, on the Skeena River. For many years the record for line caught salmon, King Salmon, was 93.7 lbs. I used to fish that spot all the time. Some of those fish were monsters. We didn't have the gear they have today. If one of the big ones ran for it in the big river, it was like trying to stop a car with 30 lb test line. You did the best you could, then -PING- no more line!
Almost all the wild caught salmon I see here is Pink Salmon, not very good. Nearly all farm raised salmon is Atlantic Salmon, not too bad. Wild caught Sockeye would be very expensive. There are lots of other types of Salmon, but most of them are not sold commercially. The weirdest salmon I ever, almost ate, was in the U.K., in a fishnchips shop "Rock Salmon" - so I got them to describe it - Dogfish! Yuck. Same in Mexico, a lot of dogfish served as shark, which I guess it is, sort of. They are considered a trash fish in the Pacific Northwest.

While fishing for Rainbows with 6 lb test, I hooked a huge spawner in Shuswap lake. It went zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........snap. Walmart actually has a smaller "Alaskan wild salmon fillet" that is much cheaper per kilo. I bought some and think it is actually trout, not salmon.

Pardon my nostalgia for buying salmon off the docks in coastal CA.
It was SO good! Red and flaky. Probably never to be seen again on my table.
The best restaurant salmon I've found is at Arileo's. Flaky and delicious.
The bad news; the price on the menu has crept up to $198 pesos. Sigh.
I do agree with the complaint that it's just not right to post one price and then charge another. Just give it to the customer straight.

Refusing to shop at Costalegre over a signage mistake is your loss. They're the best place around and the only place you can get fresh salmon. The farm-raised stuff from Chile is awful and cheap. Real salmon isn't cheap.

David wrote:Refusing to shop at Costalegre over a signage mistake is your loss.  They're the best place around and the only place you can get fresh salmon.  The farm-raised stuff from Chile is awful and cheap.  Real salmon isn't cheap.

The post didn't say it was a signage "mistake". The signage was clear. The owner's price quote is what changed.

Could this be a language issue? Maybe he meant the more you buy the price goes up? I would have taken the pieces to be weighed. Then see the kilo price on the scale. We were there in 2014 and they charged double to cut a 2 filets of sea bass. Instead of eighty pesos per kilo, he wanted 160 for the cutting fee. I said no thanks and started to leave. Then the man said okay no problem. Sometimes they try to rip you off as well.

David wrote:Refusing to shop at Costalegre over a signage mistake is your loss.  They're the best place around and the only place you can get fresh salmon.  The farm-raised stuff from Chile is awful and cheap.  Real salmon isn't cheap.

I agree. They carry 2 kinds of salmon, cheap farm-raised garbage and very expensive wild-caught. At least, so they say, it's wild-caught. It does look better, taste better, and has a better consistency. A small amount of it is a little pricey but not THAT much.

CB, are those long thin frozen, barely-pink, fillets at WM for +/- 50 pesos the ones you are talking about being trout?

I DO miss the real deal though.

The farmed raised is pale and the wild one red so thre is no confusing the two.. Oh I remember going to the ocean and buying fresh wild salmon at the docks  boy was that good...

Bottom line...a 1 kilo piece of the same fish should only be 2x the price of a 1/2 kilo piece..B.S Rip//

gringal wrote:

David wrote:Refusing to shop at Costalegre over a signage mistake is your loss.  They're the best place around and the only place you can get fresh salmon.  The farm-raised stuff from Chile is awful and cheap.  Real salmon isn't cheap.

The post didn't say it was a signage "mistake".  The signage was clear.  The owner's price quote is what changed.  

Normally there's only the farm-raised in the freezer, the Alaska sells out quickly. I'm amazed how quickly folks rush to assume foul play.

I don't think anyone is rushing to a negative conclusion and there's no argument about which fish is better, either.

So, lets' put a more generous spin on it:  The owner just forgot to put the correct price on the fish.  The customer simply didn't understand that this is normal.

But: how hard would it be to have two price signs?  Then nobody would be either pizzed off or confused.

Agree. If the fish would have been priced per size, I probably would have bought the larger piece, but since they flat out said no to the 290 price that was posted, we left. There was no consideration as all to give the posted price. All of the salmon was in a frozen bin on Tuesday. Onward and upward. We have many places to buy fish here.

The posted price was for the small pieces. They should sell the big ones to you at the wrong price? I don't think so. Yes, you can buy junk farm-raised salmon at other places.

David wrote:The posted price was for the small pieces.  They should sell the big ones to you at the wrong price?  I don't think so.  Yes, you can buy junk farm-raised salmon at other places.

Could we possibly stick to the point, which is WHY the higher price was not posted?

It didn't say small pieces 290, large pieces more. Only one price was posted for the bin or salmon. I think we are done here. Just wanted you to be aware to ask the price of each fish before you buy, as the actual price they charge is not the price that is posted.

sm1mex wrote:It didn't say small pieces 290, large pieces more.  Only one price was posted for the bin or salmon.  I think we are done here.  Just wanted you to be aware to ask the price of each fish before you buy, as the actual price they charge is not the price that is posted.

Over on TOB, the owners posted an "explanation", but it went right over my head. They seem to have the message, though.....so maybe things will get clearer.

gringal wrote: Then nobody would be either pizzed off or confused.

PIZZED ? It's about PIZZA, now I'm confused.    

slainte39 wrote:

gringal wrote: Then nobody would be either pizzed off or confused.

PIZZED ? It's about PIZZA, now I'm confused.    

Well, I didn't want the thread to disappear into the Octagon.......had a PIZZED PIZZA lately?

gringal wrote:

slainte39 wrote:

gringal wrote: Then nobody would be either pizzed off or confused.

PIZZED ? It's about PIZZA, now I'm confused.    

Well, I didn't want the thread to disappear into the Octagon.......had a PIZZED PIZZA lately?  

Even the cable news networks can get away with saying "pissed off" these days, so I don't think Bob will send you to the dungeon.
As far as pizzas go around here, they all leave me pizzed off and even worse, pissed off, but it's getting better. The first, and only pizza place for a long time in this area was Howard Fryer's restaurant at La Quinta in Jocotepec thirty five years ago. Over the years, they have proliferated but only gradually gotten better.