In a recent video Gulnara gave us some background of haggling in the former Soviet Union, and we tried to understand some of the way we could evaluate whether it is “good or bad” beyond the standard “haggling allows for optimal price discovery” vs “haggling adds transaction costs to trading”. The video can be found here.
For those who don’t like video and just want to read the text, it can be found below.
Read moreIn a recent video we’ve chatted about why cold and flu medication may be cheaper in winter than in summer – something that may seem a bit counter-intuitive. This was an issue discussed back in 2008 here and here.
For those who aren’t keen on listening to videos, I’ve popped the transcript just below 😉
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I have been hearing anecdotes from my friends in Europe that prices in supermarkets have increased since the last couple of months. Interested I had a look online and found a number of articles outlining this around the world.
According to the media, NZ shoppers have faced this as well.
“Some customers have taken to social media to complain that prices of items like soap, meat and fresh veggies have increased sharply.”
However, supermarkets kept denying the fact. It’s hard to judge the case from my experience, as Matt and I were lazy and were primarily eating outside before the lockdown. However, Stats NZ provides data here – so let’s look at the latest release on the Food price index to figure out whether the customers are right.
Read moreGulnara keeps telling me that she needs to go shopping – but of course there is a nationwide quarantine so she’s stuck at home listening to me.
Although I feel some sympathy with her situation, I was worried that I will get dragged all around the place when we do go shopping in the future – and so we’ve gone online to look at Google Maps to figure out where we’ll need to walk. Having a look it appears we won’t have to walk around that far – as the clothing and perfume stores with amazing interior signage projects.
So why is this?
Read moreMerry Christmas fine people!
So it is Christmas. How about this year I don’t:
Honestly, I used to do the same thing every year.
My way of precommiting to that was to time this post to go up on … Boxing Day! The presents are given, the inappropriate behaviour is done, and now we are ready to go shopping.
But those big sales back when I worked in retail appear to be largely gone. Why?
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This article was originally posted at Interest.co.nz in 2013. The ideas are timeless 😉
Imagine being able to print your own currency.
Click a button, add a few zeros and voila you’ve increased the money supply.
The Reserve Bank can do it, and, believe it or not in a similar vein so too can Air New Zealand.
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