Quote:“Every Argentine has a dashboard in the back of their minds with a red light on it,” said the consumer spending consultant Guillermo Oliveto. “Whenever this alarm goes off, a crisis defense mechanism emerges. From then on, it is a race to see who can shed pesos faster. Whoever falls asleep at the wheel, loses.”

Claudio Caratzu, 60, has worked at El Porteño, the small grocery store he owns in the Buenos Aires suburb of Hurlingham City, since he was 25. As inflation soars, he’s now changing price tags several times a week.

“In Argentina, prices last barely 48 hours,” he said. He’s withdrawn some of his stock from sale; the peso is losing value so rapidly that it’s difficult to gauge how much it’s really worth. “In my 35 years as a supermarket owner, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “Purchasing power slips away like water through your fingers.”

Quote: Caratzu, of El Porteño, made a drastic decision: he’s putting his supermarket for sale. “Either we let go of the business, or it will let go of us,” he said.

And he’s made another decision. In the primary, he voted for Together for Change, but in the general election, he’s changing his preference.

“I’m voting for Milei,” he said. “I’m tired of being let down time and again. Now I want to be let down by someone new.”