My brother lives in a town of 8500 in Hungary. That you can't buy food there is less of an issue but even at Budapest it is such a challenge that he visits Austria about every three weeks for a large amount of great but affordable foodstuff. Capitalism did deliver, however: Hungarian people will choose the cheapest crap too often as they earn a lot less than Western Europeans and so that's what you can get.
I don't really shop at supermarkets in Budapest, but I have friends who do and who also regularly go to Austria. They swear the better-quality Hungarian produce is sold in the Austrian supermarkets and often for less than the lower-quality stuff costs in BP.
We know of a Hungarian sheepherder who sells his lamb meat rather to Austria and Italy than Hungary. The "for less" is not true, the very reason he sells it abroad is because no one in Hungary would pay the price he asks for quality meat.
by "you can't buy food there" I (obviously?) mean passable quality food. There are supermarkets etc. You just don't want to go there. There is a good bakery tho.
