As inflation soars, Facebook drives trading in Argentina’s barter clubs

People barter goods in San Miguel market, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina June 15, 2018. Picture taken June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Martin Acosta

SAN MIGUEL, Argentina: At an abandoned train station in Buenos Aires' working-class suburb of San Miguel, hundreds of Argentines gather with bags of clothes, rice, flour and sugar to trade. 

Most are women, some accompanied by children. Cardboard signs with their names scrawled in black marker hang from strings around their necks. They walk slowly around the old concrete platform yelling out the names of people they had agreed to trade with in a forum on Facebook .