TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Provisioning BVI vs USVI

Just was starting to look at a couple of provisioning web sites for our charter next year.
We will be starting in St Thomas but spending most of charter in BVI.

First thing I checked on the St Thomas provisioning site was the price of beer.

Fresh Foods, VI- Case of 24 12oz cans Heineken - $70.19
Fresh Foods VI - Case 24 12oz Carib Lager, cans - $63.69

Check similar item in the BVI.
Riteway Foods BVI Case of 24 12oz cans Heineken - $36.99
Riteway Foods BVI Case 24 12oz Carib Lager, cans - $40.85

Not sure this will carry across all items, but seems like a good "case" for pulling into Roadtown to pick up our provisioning.

cw

I placed a provisioning order thru Morring/Sunsail and paided $33. for a case of Carib cans. Tico's seamed a bit cheaper but their store closes at 5:00. You might call them first, I'm not sure they sale Carib. Did not ask about Heineken, I can buy those at home!

Ticos doesn’t carry Carib....

Caribbean Cellars has Carib, it is $22. per case

I guess I'm not really following this. If you are willing to pull into Roadtown with the time and hassle that this entails why would you not just pull into a grocery store on St Thomas and pick up your provisions? Pueblo site indicates a 12 pack of Heineken is $17.28. And Carib 24pk is $20 ("large" cans? dunno). My point is that you seem to have artificially created a benefit to shopping at Riteway. I have never used Fresh Foods provisioning - ever. Given the price you show I suspect this is an outfit geared towards deeper pockets than mine.

Thanks for the tip! And FYI, they're open until 7. http://www.caribbeancellars.com/pricelist.pdf

Sorry to confuse you agrimsrud.
Nothing artificial about the price difference between Fresh Foods and Riteway. ( and Pueblo)
Never shopped at Fresh Foods myself and guess I wont be.
Thanks for the insight.

Fresh Foods STT is a delivery service not a grocery store.
Heineken is about $34 cs. at Pueblo or Pricesmart in STT. But they don't deliver. If you provisioned in STT you would have to go and shop and pay for transportation, or use a delivery service and pay the price.
In STT depends where you are picking up the boat, the East End stores, [Moes and Food Center] are closer to [Red Hook or Benner Bay] and a bit more expensive.
The USVI is not as geared to vessel delivery as the BVI stores are.

LS, That explains the higher prices
Good info.
Thanks

The large supermarkets on STT (Pueblo [2 locations], Moes [2 locations}, West Bay, Plaza Extra and Food Center) all have competitive pricing, or better, than BVI markets at all times of the year. They do not deliver as do Bobby's and or Riteway.

Fresh Food VI and Fine Food Afloat are provisioning services that deliver AND stow all of your purchases before you arrive so it is all done in advance for your convenience. They charge for this convenience. Every charterer has different priorities on what is most important, time, money, or both. STT has multiple options that suit all needs.

Riteway is s fantastic modern store. Pueblos near CYOA has a local island look and feel.

I agree with that. But Moes just opened up very close to the ferry terminal and CYOA in CA. It's a very nice store and well stocked.

Good to know. Last time we provisioned in stt it was dreadful.

We rent a car (Avis) at the airport on STT, provision, even go to red hook for burgers and a beer at night, return to CYOA, do a sleep aboard, and return the car at the ferry dock (sea plane) the next morning (one day rental) walk back to CYOA, and get our boat. Much cheaper and more convenient, especially if you have multiple people.

bafsailing, we do the same thing. Much cheaper to rent the car vs taxi from airport to CYOA and then running around provisioning. Plenty of options of food and drinks in STT. We had one crew member on very restricted diet and was able to find "food" for her at local health food store. Of course we will supplement food and drinks along the way. Trellis and Leverick were well stocked with additional items that we needed as the week went on. Cheers

In my last post I didn't mean to indicate that the choices were limited to Pueblo or Moes. Only that Moes and Pueblo are both within working distance to CYOA if it happens that this is where you are chartering from. We have rented a car the last few years and returned it at the sea plane base. With four of us the taxi ride almost pays for the rental car (same price going to CYOA and the ferry dock). We then drive to Plaza Extra and get our groceries. We did the same on our last trip in August. But before shoving off the dock we had to pick something up and ran over to Moes to take care of it. Which is when we decided in the future we can just skip the trip to Plaza Extra and provision at Moes. We'll see how that plan goes next time.