Do you get everything in Mauritius?

There are only 1.3 million people in Mauritius. With the notable exception of one particularly popular product in the Health section of the grocery store, you won't find 15 kinds of anything here.

For typical Amazon shipments, they automatically fill out the customs declaration descriptions and values.

It is my understanding that they even have customs-friendly descriptions for over-the-counter medicines that are not available here... which seems like just about everything: Benadryl, Pepto Bismol, hydrocortisone, etc. (I know you can get equivalent products here, but you have to ask the pharmacist for the generic version of it and you never know what they're going to hand you.)

It's odd the kinds of things you can't find here. I needed a grommet recently. No one seemed to know what a grommet is. Really?

How about a serious mosquito trap? You would think there would be an abundance of choices for taking down "mozzies" like a streaming horde of zombies, but I sure couldn't find what I was looking for... so I ordered one the one pictured above. Mauritius will be mosquito free by the time I'm done with the little monsters.

There are several package forwarding services like MyUS.com.  I haven't used any of the others.  I'm really happy with this one.

@Novalis1
I'm pretty sure I've watched them all. :-)
I'll make some that use Mosquito Dunks and put them around the yard.
Thanks!

@Starry Expanse

Wow, so you have to pay the customs people directly?

Usually you'd pay Fedex(even if you hadn't payed upfront) and they'd then forward that to customs. Going to the bank and depositing cash would be quite a hassle too.

@zurtle
This was my first time shipping anything internationally.
MyUS.com had an option of paying a "guaranteed" amount up front, but I got excited and clicked "Go" before I really thought it through. 
I vaguely recall reading somewhere that customs will not bother with fees on packages with a declared value of less than $300.
I've also read that the number is actually "less than $100".  I have a couple of packages waiting to be shipped, so I'll experiment a little and let you know what happens.

@Starry Expanse We are eagerly awaiting your experiences. Many thanks!

@MaaBoo Thanks very much! I know it is Africa, but I hoped to buy or order as much as possible. Now I have to bring everything I need or need it later.

You can be sure: I will be the second person on the island with a german hexagon key. :-)

What about building materials like screws, dowels, drills, screwdriwers, etc... I guess there is a shop you can buy that, right?

@zurtle the honest answer is no we don't get everything. amazon does not deliver here that's what I miss the most about the UK because it is so easy to buy anything there. It find it very difficult to find things here and I have in the past used shop and ship to deliver however, after covid and shipping port delays it drove the cost of shipping up so much that its hardly worth it anymore. You also have to pay customs 15% of the value of your items in order to release it and get it delivered. They email you when it arrives in the port.

You can try parcel monkey too but you need someone to pack your parcel for you before sending it.

If you have allergies like gluten or lactose intolerance  then that's also going to make life a bit difficult but it just depends on how badly you need amazon or online shopping. Now I just buy everything when I go back to the UK and bring it with me.

That's my honest take on it but maybe someone here can tell me their tips on getting amazon deliveries.

@zurtle When I have shipped packages through FedEx, they get handled by a customs-front end company (?) named Rennel. When Rennel sends me an email that says there are import fees, I have to go to the bank, withdraw cash, fill out one or more deposit slips, and deposit the payments directly into their MCB account.

I've only just gotten an MCB account, so I'll probably be able to handle it more easily from now on.

When I shipped through DHL, I was able to pay the import fees online, up front. It was much, much easier--and it eliminated an extra day or two of waiting for me to go to the bank.

A Costco warehouse

Costco is a huge membership-based warehouse store. They sell high quality products for a lot less than everyone else. That's partially because the annual membership fees offset their prices, partially because the keep their profit to about 4% (if I recall correctly), and partially because they sell an unbelievable amount of merchandise. Here is Costco's website:  https://www.costco.com/

I Googled for a Costco-like store in Mauritius, and found this:

https://www.ubuy.mu/

uBuy is a company that buys stuff from Costco and redistributes it all over the world... including Mauritius.

They have several stores (warehouses/distribution hubs?) around the island.

Their website has a pretty good search function, so it's easy to find whatever you need: clothes, electronics, kitchenware, cases of Snickers bars, pet food, wine and spirits (maybe), jewelry, office supplies, furniture, camping gear, books, coffins (seriously!) †

I haven't bought anything from them yet, but it looks promising.

------------

† I was walking down the street recently and a man stopped me and asked,

"Would you like to buy a coffin?"

"A coffin?", I scoffed. "That's the last thing I need!"

@Starry Expanse

Just moved to Mauritius in March. God I miss Costco and Amazon. I even miss Walmart now . However when I look at the bigger picture, I made the right decision to move here. No stress and no snow.

Living for 25 years on Rodrigues, it took us some time to get used to organise for items which are not available here, technical spare parts have always remained a challenge.

In general there was a lot missing, it's better now, but there is always still something. Rodrigues is even more difficult than Mauritius. Amazon & Ebay won't deliver here, for some IT supplies Alibaba will usually do. We have never stopped asking friends or family for items we need.

Btw, hexagon keys (allen keys?) are available here:))

And yes, I still miss Vollkornbrot & the simple Aldi-Magerquark On the other hand, we have learned to live with only a fraction of what we took sometimes for granted in Germany, and this is really a good thing. 

@Tom Mack there are many builders merchants on the island fo things like screws some tools are also avalible in different shops i bring my spécialiste tools from the uk as they are hard to find and expensive but more and more things are available in Mauritius, i bought so solar lights from the uk and found them in a great shop in flic en flac for about the same price