Well to top it off the normal prices here are ridiculously high for most things. Jeans etc cost 3-4x as much as the USA. That applies to most consumer products. I really don't know how most Poles by the stuff they buy especially housing on the salaries they make.
What does it have to do with Poles?
Have you tried to buy a decent pair of Jeans in Paris?
My sister and her hubby will fly to NYC for a weekend to buy clothing at no more than 25% of what they have to pay in France.
I refuse to pay so much for stuff and just stock up when in the states. A recent example. The exact same laptop at shops here....5000pln...in the US it was 2000pln.
I buy a lot of computer equipment on a regular basis. The prices of some laptops (same make and model), and other computer goodies will vary by as much as 100% WITHIN the US. In Canada, when buying a car (manufactured in Canada) we had to pay 30 to 50% more than Americans were charged for the exact same car manufactured in Canada. That on top of the fact that the Canadian Dollar was on parity with USD, and at times even higher.
Look at book prices. Canadian libraries rebelled in the last few months. Again, with Canadian Dollar being on parity with USD librarians saw no reason for books being priced at around 40% more in Canada than in the US.
All those strange pricing discrepancies are given various reasons by various American and Canadian economists. The common theme among them is this simple principle: you charge whatever the market will bear.
Welcome to free market economy!
We do like market economy, don't we?
The exact same laptop at shops here....5000pln...in the US it was 2000pln. I can see if something is specifically American and imported...but most stuff this isn't the case.
You're not trying to suggest that any laptops to speak of are manufactured in the US, are you?