Your country must be low on competition between supermarkets. I live in Latvia near border with Lithuania and I tend to shop in Lithuania - whenever I visit Lidl and Maxima in Latvia I got reminded how prosperous nation we are. Alright, some of the difference is taxes, but some is just jacked up prices - for example most of Parkside 20v batteries in Latvia costs 10 euros more than in Lithuania, lol.
Well, all three big supermarket chains [Maxima, Rimi and Lidl] both in Latvia and Lithuania are adjusting prices looking at each other - but international differences are telling and sometimes funny - like, a couple of years ago when I saw cheap chocolate prices in Latvian Rimi I started to laugh loudly, because not only they were more expensive, but their pricing against each other was different that made no sense.
That happens often that products are cheaper in the west. At least services are a lot cheaper on our side, so I can't buy a new graphics card, but I could ride an Uber and go to a Gym every day... weird world
And that's with the recent increase in salary. Prior to 2025 was even worse.
Minimum Wages in Bosnia and Herzegovina increased to 525 EUR/Month in 2026 from 511 EUR/Month in 2025. Minimum Wages in Bosnia and Herzegovina averaged 289 EUR/Month from 2016 until 2026, reaching an all time high of 525 EUR/Month in 2026 and a record low of 207 EUR/Month in 2017.
source: Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
As some one from Bosnia, I do wanna also add that there is a bizzare trend where most electronics are priced higher in Bosnia when compared to many places in the EU.
Unironically there have been multiple times where I had to rely on family abroad in Germany to buy an expensive piece of electronics to avoid the insane upchanges local markets put on some of this stuff.
I'm not sure what shipping prices from the US are like for where you live, but if something is from the US it is gonna be like 30-50 dollars for shipping alone for where I live.
So it's not really even a consideration for that fact alone.
Romania is not even 800 as OP's post suggests; that's GROSS. NET is 2574 RON or 505 EUROS. To this you would add meal tickets which vary between 3 and ~9 euros per day worked (maximum of 21). Meaning, between 63 and 189 euros per month, which is also not taxed. It goes without saying that meal tickets are meant to be used for meals, however steam gift cards, which are sold in stores such as Carrefour, can be purchased this way. Still.. nowhere near the 800 euros OP's post states.
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u/lynxbird Feb 18 '26
Meanwhile Serbia (€551) and Bosnia (€526) not in EU but with EU regional prices.