I noticed in Madrid when I was there a couple of years ago, that clothes were horrifically expensive. I went to this big department store and after browsing the clothes a bit, I walked out, shell-shocked. I had forgotten that. So, I needed some underwear shorts and socks and found a clothing store nearby. Two pairs of shorts and a pair of socks? Nearly 80 Euros!!!
30 Euros for a pair of shorts! Sure, they are good quality, but come on! I get three pairs of Fruit of the Loom underwear shorts from Amazon for $14. And $22 for one pair of socks?
So what is the deal in Europe? Insanely high tariffs? Never import anything from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh? Really powerful domestic clothing industry with a lot of lobbyists? By my estimate, Europeans pay roughly four times what they should for clothing. And I suspect that a lot of that is tax, like the 20% added to the total above.
This concludes our public service announcement for today.
UPDATE: Here, let me show you why I was so nonplussed at the price of socks. Here is my receipt from the wine store where I picked up four nice wines: a Grüner Veltliner (that's Austria's characteristic white grape) from a highly recognized producer, an Eiswein from a small producer (in Canada they are super-expensive), a nice rosé and a Zweigelt (red wine grape) from an excellent region. Total price: just under 58 Euros. Or you could almost buy two men's underwear. Isn't this just crazy?
5 comments:
The word that struck my eye was 'Erbgut', which is ancestral estate, genotype, genome & I found that pretty funny in the context of the particular type of clothing you shoppped for. In the figurative sense, you can read 'heritage' & so I expect that it is in actual usage some sort of reference to the 'long-standing reputation of the manufacturers for quality' etc etc. The $12 for four that I spend at Walmart doesn't get me heirloom-quality but they serve their purpose.
Am puzzled how you purchased 82 euros' worth of stuff (well, 78,70 after the rebate on the socks) and paid 20% tax? I think that you must not have been charged the tax? And re-reading, I notice that you don't actually write that you paid the calculated tax (looks to me like you gave the clerk bank notes in the amount of 90 and received 11,30 back).
I think how they do it, is the tax is actually included at all stages, but if you look towards the bottom you will see the amount of 65.58 Euros separated out, the amount without the tax. He gave me the rebate after I protested that 80 euros was a ridiculous price.
If you compare to the wineshop receipt, there is no 20% tax on wine, just clothing. Weird place, Europe. But somebody's business is being protected in a big way.
Ah, I see. Not disclosing the tax on each item is a bit questionable but the state has its reasons that reason doesn't understand.
I saw an article where they separated out the various and multitudinous taxes on a $10 bottle of wine in Canada. The tax came to around $7 IIRC.
A friend tells me that you can find reasonably priced clothes in Europe, but you have to know where to look.
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