Wednesday, December 13, 2006

An arm and a leg

At the jewelry section of the SM Cebu Department Store there's a necklace with a price tag of P330,000. And a pair of earrings with a price tag of P285,000. I wasn't there to actually buy jewelry, but I just happened to pass by there while doing some other Christmas shopping.

This is probably the first time I've come face-to-face with such expensive stuff with the full perspective of comparing those prices to my own salary. Hah, It's well more than what I make in a year. With that much money you could make perhaps a dozen of those Gawad Kalinga houses for the poor. That kind of extravagance in a third world country just doesn't make sense to me. They didn't even seem that nice to me, actually... it's that huge garish shit that Imelda Marcos puts on herself.

I guess the saleslady could tell that I wasn't actually the type that would be interested in buying any jewelry there, because she didn't bother attending to me aside from giving a lazy "Good evening, sir". Maybe my scruffy hair and the fact that I was going around the mall with a backpack gave away my intentions. Or perhaps the look of horror on my face when I saw the prices.

4 comments:

  1. I can't think of any person who would stop to look at someone's earrings and say "holy cow, you have 300000 peso earrings!" It's clearly meant to be bought by people who intend to brag about it, and that kind of extravagance makes no sense in any country.

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  2. I'd like to buy buy that since, you know, I have nothing better to do with my money. Might as well spend it on something as superficial as a necklace, right? Besides, it's preeeetty. That's gotta make up for the price. People are gonna stare in awe at me for being able to afford something like that, and they're gonna wish they were me. And if they've gotten tired of that, I can go strut along squatters' areas wearing the necklace, then I'll shake their hands and pretend I care, when all I really want is for them to envy my fortune.
    Jeez. Why is there even such a piece of jewelry as expensive as that? I'd seriously like to see someone buy that. And mug him/her on the way out :))
    Okay, I'm blabbing. I'll stop.

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  3. Maybe I just have a male bias against expensive jewelry. I can easily imagine spending a million pesos on a new car, but jewelry does seem very superficial to spend that much on. Especially considering you could get pretty earrings for a thousandth the price. ^_^

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