Gaul

In which we study the markup on an import

Written by Forest Pines; published at 9:38 am on August 29th, 2007.
Filed under: Photobloggery, Unbelievable.

This was seen in the large Parisian department store Galaries Lafayette* the other day, in the “Epicerie Britannique” section of the gourmet foodhall:

Click on the image for an enlargement – but if you can’t be bothered, that’s a bottle of salad cream that says “99p” on the label, on sale for €3.24** At today’s exchange rate – just under 68p to the euro – that’s a shop price of £2.20. Slightly less of a bargain than it says on the label, then. The shop was also selling tins of Heinz beans originally from multipacks, singly, for about £1 per tin. Ouch. How much does it cost to import a tin of beans, exactly?

* They do apparently have an official website, which I couldn’t get to work at all.

** That was meant to be a euro sign – let me know if it didn’t work.

Keyword noise: British food, Epicerie Britannique, exorbitant, exotic, food, France, Galaries Lafayette, Heinz, import, markup, Paris, price, pricing, salad cream

One comment on “Gaul”

1. Symbolic Forest » Follow-up says:

   September 2, 2007 at 6:52 pm

   [...] Talking of Catherine and Arnaud, incidentally: they were the reason I was in France taking photos of over-priced salad cream last week. They were having a party; not an anniversary party, but a housewarming, or crémaillaire. That word, apparently, relates to an ancient French custom of hanging up a butter churn when moving into a new house. So I’m told, anyway: my French really isn’t up to much.* If you want to see photos, though, you can do. [...]