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Sometimes when I go to a mall (lets say Plaza Las Americas) it's not rare to often see people speaking english while shopping around the mall. Most of the time the persons have dark skin. Most of the USVI population have dark skin so my question to USVI residents is:
Do you often find yourself crossing the pond to shop in Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico has a larger variety of stores than the USVI so lets say that you take a weekend to cross the pond with your family just to shop around and return home with your newly acquired stuff. Also, is there a car ferry service that goes from Fajardo to St. Thomas, St. Croix, etc?
Before internet shopping became so simple it wasn't uncommon for VI residents to shop in PR occasionally but not so much any more. No, there is no car ferry between the VI and PR, only between St Thomas and St John.
Most PR residents may have very basic English skills but few know the language at an advanced level.
The accents of the people I hear speaking english when going shopping aren't Puerto Rican. It's almost always Afro-Caribbean or some mainland accent. Maybe they are just tourists but I always kinda assumed that they were USVI residents weekend shopping here.
About car ferry between the islands, with a normal ferry I guess it can be rough but with car ferries like the HSC Alakai it can be a smooth way to cross the pond with your vehicle. Those things go 40 MPH and the distance between Fajardo and St. Thomas isn't that far. But to be fair there's no demand for this to happen in the near future.
Such a car ferry would cost too much for the most part. And the beat to wind coming home would be terrible.
I suspect there will be more and more shopping PR as the Gov raises hotel, gross receipts and creates other taxes so the political elite can maintain their lifestyles.
We've found that Stateside visits and careful grocery purchases, bringing back 4 suitcases full of everything from pasta to tuna and beef steaks, actually easily pay for themselves. Tuna steak here, for example, is $22.50 a pound. Stateside it is less than $7.00 a pound for the best. A "seal a meal" unit for prep for transport is key. We've cut our food costs in half. I saw avocados in CA for $0.59 ea. Here, they're $3.00 apiece, more or less. You can't convince me the "shipping" argument works with the cost differential. Curiously, there's no check on transport of vegetation into the V.I. when traveling, but not out of the V.I.
We have no viable shopping malls here, so yes, I would suspect that as the closest [and cheapest to get to] large population center, a decent amount of people are going over there to shop. Online shopping for certain things is available, but for instance Target, Wal Mart, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many other online retailers just don't ship here even though it is USPS.
JoelR89: welcome to this forum. Hope you will find all of your questions answered here. There are many knowledgeable posters here and I think you'll find your answers.
STT Resident has resided in STT for many years and can answer almost anything related to the islands.
But to answer your original question, I find that I get most everything from internet shopping. So, you'll do without very little.
Myself, only 4 years and years spent as a teen in STX; so not much help. Just give everthing a try once before passing judgement and good luck.
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