Pingdong wrote:I think in general Asians throw away the most money. considering how much they barter, its weird how few of them are willing to go to a "low class" store to buy the same thing 1/2 price. No wonder Taiwan doesnt promote its mountains as tourist meccas for the nature loving crowds.
Its all about how something makes you feel. If you buy it at a "high class" store it somehow feels different then the same item bought at a "discount" store.
The product is the same but the "feel" is different and therefore the product itself somehow had a different valuation.
Case in point. A study was made where two restaurants were set up side by side. One was very posh, five star while the other was plain jane. The same exact steak was cooked up in the same kitchen in the back by the same chef but sold at half price at the discount restaurant.
Invariably restaurant goers praised the steak at the fives star restaurant at double the price and not the one at the plain jane. The ambience of the five star restaurant clearly added value to the actual product, even at a stiff increase in price.
A products "value" can thus be interpreted quite differently. A young lady buying a gucci handbag at a gucci store being handled by an experienced and well groomed gucci salesperson sees that item in a different light then if she had gotten it at a store in shimenting , even at a fat discount.
I admired an Alain Delon watch at a department store in taipei a while back. It was going for 8500nt. By chance I saw it on sale on the street by hawker. Bought it for 4000nt then and there. I always laugh at the deal i got.
But to many buying that item at a Sogo for 8500 has much more satisfaction and "value" then to have bought that at a hawker stall in the alley next to the store.
