This morning after we tucked the Pixenheimer off to school, Gary and I decided to go on an outing in quest of a bag of soil and a chain we need for security purposes (more on security in a future post). On our way, we stopped at a farmers’
market and bought mangoes still warm from the sun, a watermelon, and several avocados. A motorcycle whizzed by loaded down with three bareheaded people and a surfboard, and I cringed as I aIways do waiting for sounds of wreckage, but it didn’t
come. We meandered on our way and wound up an hour or so later at the Do It Center, a large, Home Depot style store except that it was loaded with available employees, all of them eager to practice their English and show us around.
Gary
and I have logged some time at hardware stores and are pretty familiar with prices in the U.S., so we took a good look to see how things compare. What fascinates both of us about the high prices here is that the average wage for unskilled labor is about
$2 an hour. Those workers would have to work a day and a half just to buy a muffin tin, and we can’t work out how they are getting by. Probably without muffins.
*That high chair? US$88