The other night, Sarah and I had a conversation that went something like this…
Sarah – “WHY ON EARTH DO PEOPLE THINK THAT IF I SHOP IN GERMANY I CAN GET REALLY COOL STUFF?”
Me – “I don’t know honey, ’cause every thing you can get over here is the same as the stuff you can get in the states.”
Sarah – “AND THE DOLLAR SUCKS SO EVERYTHING OVER THERE IS NEARLY TWICE AS EXPENSIVE!”
Me – “Yeah…”
Sarah – “I MEAN, WITH GLOBALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY, I CAN GO DOWN THE STREET HERE IN TEXAS AND BUY COOKIES THAT WERE MADE IN ITALY, OR ALL SORTS OF OTHER THINGS THAT ARE MADE IN OTHER COUNTRIES LIKE SWISS FURNITURE FROM IKEA… BESIDES THAT, NOTHING IS MADE IN THE U.S. ANYMORE!”
Me – “Yeah…”
Sarah – “IF I BUY THINGS OVER HERE RATHER THAN OVER THERE, WE SAVE LIKE 50% AND STILL GET THE SAME STUFF!”
Me – “I know…”
Sarah – “I JUST WISH PEOPLE WOULD STOP TELLING ME TO BUY STUFF OVER THERE BECAUSE I CAN GET COOLER STUFF. I CAN GET THE SAME STUFF OVER HERE! DO PEOPLE THINK GERMANY IS A MAGICAL LAND WITH STORES FULL OF MAGICAL FURNITURE WITH MAGICAL POWERS?”
OK, OK, so she didn’t ask about furniture with magical powers, but that was the point… People think that somehow living in a different country allows for finding cooler stuff, but really we live in a very globalized economy where all the same stuff is available over here… Just thought this was a funny conversation.
-John
I’m going to be living in London in the fall (which is worse than Germany in terms of the dollar being crappy) and when I talk about getting clothes before I go people are like “but you can buy really cool stuff over there!” and I’m like “And it will cost me twice as much for the exact same stuff…. NO THANKS!”
I suppose the only benefit would be we could tell people (when we’re back in the states) that we bought x item in Europe. OooOOooOOOoo 😉
Exactly!!
By the way, I really hope we can finally visit one another while we’re both in Europe!
Me too! I can’t wait to travel around Europe on weekends! 🙂
haha… I want magical furniture!!
Definitely. Well it’s the same here, it’s cool to buy your clothes in the US. Seriously it is. Right now it’s pretty cheap for us too but it’s cool to have things from a different country…I’m not sure why, hehe.
im excited about your shopping experiences in local german stores/towns..not the big chains
=)