I am not certain about the entirety of thoughts that fuel my fevered brain, but I do know the re-occuring themes; two of which are Food and the other Money.
Not money exactly, but aspects that can be put under that heading. An example of this is- 'Where is all the money and how can I get some? a.k.a Searching for work'.
Perhaps in relation to that subject or even a direct cause of said situation, I constantly think about price versus value.
I am a bit obsessed. The obsession started before the introduction of the Euro. Before the Euro there was a pervading notion that "in Italy" designer clothing could be had by even a normal girl like me, that "in France" there were vintage finds for a pittance in every street market and "in Thailand" any clothing item could be tailor made for you for pennies! For me at least this did not turn out to be a reality, for example if your favorite clothing item is a 1950s dress with a lot of detailing and pleats, this will still cost you about a hundred dollars (U.S.) to have copied in Thailand.
What I did find when I ventured outside of the U.S. is that prices indeed vary. I started to keep mental lists of where items were most cheaply priced. Any city I visited had to include a trip to a coffee shop and a drug store to compare prices of a cup of coffee and toothpaste, which in my mind would anchor all prices for later comparison. My obsession has been rekindled by all the articles lately focused on "food miles", or the carbon foot print of an item getting to the shelves. Those articles are only the beginning of the dark spiral into how much an item really costs the large retail chains to buy.
In Sweden I find food pricey and clothes inexpensive. My perspective is skewed of course by the fact that when I first came here in 2001, I got 10kr to each U.S. dollar, today I get 5 kr for each Australian dollar (which to currently about the same as the U.S. dollar). When I buy anything from a dress or an ice-cream, I feel the sting of that item being in my view twice the price. I am often paralyzed into not purchasing an item because I can not decide if the value and the price match up simply because of price variation. My girlfriend had a shop in Seattle, and I used to buy Banho soap from here, I remember the soap being good value for the price, I know on the web through a place like Amazon the soap would be $14 U.S. or about 70 kr, I know that I saw this soap a few months ago in Melbourne AU on sale for $29 AU or about 145 kr, up the road here in Stockholm I saw the soap for 188kr or almost $37 AU-, as I stand in a shop staring at a simple item such as a bar of soap, I am sure my eyes are unfocused as my mathematically challenged brain tries to add up the price in all known currencies, then factor in the state of my personal un-employment better known as "should I really spend all my husbands money", and compounded by deciding if the item is coated by the guilt of underpayed employees, and drenched in the blood of depleting planetary resources...
I had to of course give up the soap and its complications and go to the sanctuary of a local community opportunity shop, known by me as a 'thrift store', where I purchased a cute, basic black dress by H&M, all potential guilt balanced out by the stores charitable standing, and the fact that the dress was priced at 45 kr or $9 AU and I placed my purchase into a shopping bag I had brought with me, on foot.
Not money exactly, but aspects that can be put under that heading. An example of this is- 'Where is all the money and how can I get some? a.k.a Searching for work'.
Perhaps in relation to that subject or even a direct cause of said situation, I constantly think about price versus value.
I am a bit obsessed. The obsession started before the introduction of the Euro. Before the Euro there was a pervading notion that "in Italy" designer clothing could be had by even a normal girl like me, that "in France" there were vintage finds for a pittance in every street market and "in Thailand" any clothing item could be tailor made for you for pennies! For me at least this did not turn out to be a reality, for example if your favorite clothing item is a 1950s dress with a lot of detailing and pleats, this will still cost you about a hundred dollars (U.S.) to have copied in Thailand.
What I did find when I ventured outside of the U.S. is that prices indeed vary. I started to keep mental lists of where items were most cheaply priced. Any city I visited had to include a trip to a coffee shop and a drug store to compare prices of a cup of coffee and toothpaste, which in my mind would anchor all prices for later comparison. My obsession has been rekindled by all the articles lately focused on "food miles", or the carbon foot print of an item getting to the shelves. Those articles are only the beginning of the dark spiral into how much an item really costs the large retail chains to buy.
In Sweden I find food pricey and clothes inexpensive. My perspective is skewed of course by the fact that when I first came here in 2001, I got 10kr to each U.S. dollar, today I get 5 kr for each Australian dollar (which to currently about the same as the U.S. dollar). When I buy anything from a dress or an ice-cream, I feel the sting of that item being in my view twice the price. I am often paralyzed into not purchasing an item because I can not decide if the value and the price match up simply because of price variation. My girlfriend had a shop in Seattle, and I used to buy Banho soap from here, I remember the soap being good value for the price, I know on the web through a place like Amazon the soap would be $14 U.S. or about 70 kr, I know that I saw this soap a few months ago in Melbourne AU on sale for $29 AU or about 145 kr, up the road here in Stockholm I saw the soap for 188kr or almost $37 AU-, as I stand in a shop staring at a simple item such as a bar of soap, I am sure my eyes are unfocused as my mathematically challenged brain tries to add up the price in all known currencies, then factor in the state of my personal un-employment better known as "should I really spend all my husbands money", and compounded by deciding if the item is coated by the guilt of underpayed employees, and drenched in the blood of depleting planetary resources...
I had to of course give up the soap and its complications and go to the sanctuary of a local community opportunity shop, known by me as a 'thrift store', where I purchased a cute, basic black dress by H&M, all potential guilt balanced out by the stores charitable standing, and the fact that the dress was priced at 45 kr or $9 AU and I placed my purchase into a shopping bag I had brought with me, on foot.
1 comment:
This is such a great post! I'll be checking in regularly to read your funny, international musings...
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