As you might expect, there are islander prices and non-islander prices on many items: particularly produce, some fish, and a few other things. Prices vary all over the place and not many items actually have price stickers on them. A 1/2 pound of tomatoes is 15$EC in one place, 9$EC in another. ($6 US / $3.60 US) We have chosen to shop regularly at Darkie's produce stand, so now we get the island prices. If we shop at Doris's, she just adds it up and you pay (we get a 10% island discount) ... kind of like going to the Extortion Sisters in Maine.
We pretty much pay for everything in cash. We found it's just easier. Doris and Knight's and the hardware store take credit cards, but charge 4%. The produce people, fish guys, street vendors, taxis, etc. all take cash only. The restaurants take credit, but we are not frequenting them much yet, since most of them are closed. (It IS the off-season here.)
So we are pretty much at the ATM on a regular basis. But make sure you get your money early, like Thursday, because Friday is pay day and the 2 banks on the island could run out of money over the weekend.
We are using EC -- East Caribbean dollars. It is pretty much like US, except they have a dollar coin and no penny (only 2cents). To figure out what something costs in US $, we just multiply buy .4.
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