Can 買う mean to spend on?


On a national gyoza festival:

> 特に栃木県宇都宮市と静岡県浜松市の店には、たくさんの人が並んでいました。１つの家族が１年にギョーザを **買う** 金額は、この２つの市の
> **どちらか** が日本でいちばんになっています。  
>  Lots of people lined up, particularly at the 栃木県宇都宮市 and 静岡県浜松市 stalls. The
> amount of money _spent on_ gyoza by a family in one year has become the
> highest in Japan in _either_ of these two cities.

Can 買う mean 'to spend on'? I'm having real trouble making a good sentence
using the word 'buy'. Or have I completely mistranslated the clause?

I'm also not comfortable with どちらか here. My translation 'highest in _either_
of these two cities' is bad English and bad logic. How should I understand
どちらか in this sentence?

I think I may have got this translation very badly wrong.




`買う` cannot mean `to spend on`. Even if it did, `ギョーザを買う` would be bizarre,
because I would expect it to mean we were "spending our gyoza" on something.

That said, I think this may be less a matter of the definitions for `買う` and
more a matter of how we translate the below relative clause into English.

> １つの家族が１年にギョーザを買う金額

This may be tempting to read as "The money one family spends on gyoza in a
year", because that's a very natural construction in English, and I don't even
think it's a bad translation in context.

However, if you want to be strict about word choice, the verb `spend` is
absent from this sentence. For a good translation using the word `buy`, I
would try this:

> The sum of money one family buys gyoza with.

This is a little awkward and definitely sounds better (in English) with
`spend`, but hopefully it at least convinces you that the construction is
possible in English, and reasonable.

Again for `どちらか`, I think this is more of a translation issue than an
understanding issue. Try:

> The sum of money one family buys gyoza with is the highest in Japan in one
> of these two cities.

Edit: As mentioned below, which city its highest in can change year to year,
hence mentioning that it's highest in "one of these two cities".




`買う` cannot mean `to spend on`. Even if it did, `ギョーザを買う` would be bizarre,
because I would expect it to mean we were "spending our gyoza" on something.

That said, I think this may be less a matter of the definitions for `買う` and
more a matter of how we translate the below relative clause into English.

> １つの家族が１年にギョーザを買う金額

This may be tempting to read as "The money one family spends on gyoza in a
year", because that's a very natural construction in English, and I don't even
think it's a bad translation in context.

However, if you want to be strict about word choice, the verb `spend` is
absent from this sentence. For a good translation using the word `buy`, I
would try this:

> The sum of money one family buys gyoza with.

This is a little awkward and definitely sounds better (in English) with
`spend`, but hopefully it at least convinces you that the construction is
possible in English, and reasonable.

Again for `どちらか`, I think this is more of a translation issue than an
understanding issue. Try:

> The sum of money one family buys gyoza with is the highest in Japan in one
> of these two cities.

Edit: As mentioned below, which city its highest in can change year to year,
hence mentioning that it's highest in "one of these two cities".

