As Smallsteps has a friends' birthday party next week and the weather is rainy, we decided to go into the city to a shopping centre for Daddy-Daughter coffee, and to look for a present. Her friend is a couple years younger than her, so Smallsteps said that it can't be anything too advanced, as she can't read or write very well yet. Fair enough - a soft toy and a jewellery making kit was the final choice.
But while we were looking around, there was a quite new, tiny store that sold American products (mostly sweet stuff) which I haven't gone into before, because American food is far too sweet for me - and I have a sweet tooth! It all tastes like it is made from plastic and E-codes too, but I guess if I grew up there, it would be normal. However, as I walked past I noticed a couple of other items that were English, so I went in and discovered that they have Vegemite also.
Score!
I didn't buy any, because I have some in the fridge still from the last time 
But it is expensive.
For price comparison, in Woolworths Australia, a 280g jar is currently $6.50 AUD/ $2.32 per 100g. That is 3.64 EUR/ 1.29 EUR per 100g. At 9.9€, it is 4.50 EUR per 100g, a 300% markup. Of course, having access to it halfway around the world, in a market where people don't usually eat it, comes at an understandable premium.
I go through the exercise in my head of converting things to some kind of comparable base, in order to get a sense of true cost. However in Finland (and I think the EU) it is law that they have to make the conversion on the tickets, so everything has a weight or volume base. The price ticket for a can of beer also has a per litre price, so that different sized cans can be compared. Same for cheese.
And since I don't drink beer (how un-Australian), Smallsteps and I were in the grocery store getting some cheese. I grabbed the basic one that we normally gets (and she likes), and she looked at another packet of the same type of cheese and said, why don't we get this one instead. And I said it was far more expensive for the same type of cheese.
But it is cheaper!
Which then triggered the conversation about comparing weights, as while the price of the product was indeed slightly cheaper, it was also half the weight, meaning it was almost twice the price. So Smallsteps started questioning why and also why they are able to make the packets the same size and look similar, if they contain half as much.
While this is not ground-breaking information for you guys reading, these kinds of conversations are important for kids to have with parents. While I don't want her to be someone who is incessantly looking for bargains and worrying about the price of everything, I also want her to understand that there is a lot of manipulation and influence in the world that she should be aware of, so getting into these conversations, is important.
At breakfast today, we were talking about price sensitivity, after Smallsteps was asking if it is possible to put whatever price on our house and sell it. Yes, putting the price at a million is fine I said, but is someone going to buy it at that price if the house next door is similar and half as much? Of course not. So the conversation went in to a loaf of bread a at a store, the cost of the bread at 1, and how much a store could sell it for. If the price was 10, they might sell one of them, if the price was five, maybe 10, at 4 they could sell twenty and at 3, they could sell 70. So, they are looking to maximise their profit. Supply and demand.
People will pay a premium to fulfil their desires.
And I think that this is something that we should all recognise in ourselves, where like the Vegemite, I am willing to overpay to fulfil my desire for that salty goodness, full of Vitamin B. But if I was in Australia, would I be as keen to pay that price, when there is a high demand and a high supply of the same product?
Not on your Nelly!
Desire fulfilment is what most of the consumerism is targeting of course though, because it is far easier to convince people to pay more for what they want, than for what they need. So all the advertisements are targeting that gratification mechanism in us, often looking to drive our emotions to instant gratify, rather than think on it. They want to trigger our impulses, and if you look at your own impulses, rarely are they of the type that makes you better, stronger, healthier, richer. They are almost always negative to where we might want to be.
Yet, how much of our daily behaviour is acting toward the places and the kind of person we want to be, and how much is driven by impulses that make us worse off? I would suggest that because most of what we do is on default and driven by emotion, most of our actions are counterproductive to being the kind of person we want to be.
Which is an ongoing discussion I am having with Smallsteps.
We aren't who we think we are, we are who we behave as. We are able to change our behaviours and at in an instant, become someone else (behaviourally) if we choose. It might not last for long, but in the moment, we can decide. The more we decide to act as the person we want to be, by doing the things that kind of person does, the more likely we get into the habit and become that type of person by default. This works for all of our behaviours, but if we are constantly desire-filling, that is the type of person we are, that is what defaults are reinforced, and the results will follow suit. So if our desires are negative for our wellbeing, we will act in ways that will cost our wellbeing.
The cost of a "taste of home" is expensive comparatively to doing the same in Australia, but in context of the rest of life here, it is a small price to pay for a little bit of wellbeing it brings to me. But if I decided to do this constantly across multiple areas, the cost would be enormous. It would be like building a car from the ground up, buying all the parts separately from the manufacturer. A basic car would cost the same as a new Ferrari.
For me at least, I think we should really spend time considering how much "comfort and convenience" we are willing to pay for in our lives, and where the cost becomes too great for the potential return. It is the same with the way we consume content, or sit around scrolling, or do anything at all. There is always an opportunity-cost to what we do, yet we should understand that we are primed for desire satisfaction, not self-improvement.
Another conversation for later.
Taraz
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