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Add a Department Store to Your ItineraryComplete Listing of Ed and Julie's Travel Tips and Planning Tools
Department stores then, and still, though to a lesser degree, carried a broad range of merchandise, from housedresses, fashion statements and unmentionables to hard goods like refrigerators and washing machines. From a simple and short visit he found one could intuit a bit about the local cost of living and standard of living, at least in US terms.
While the results of such visits varied greatly by country 30 years ago, it was clear the US had available more, better and less costly material goods. Regardless of country, for example, washing machines were clearly luxury items for most workers.
While much is the same, now, much remains different. Styles differ, although in many cases what you'll find on the prêt-à-porter racks in Europe will not make it to US stores for a year. Customs and circumstances are different. For example Europeans tend to buy food for meals daily and have little use for large refrigerators. With energy costs so much higher in Europe you'll find items like dryers and washers are far more energy efficient, for which there is a price. And do be sure to not compare the price of electronics in a European department store against the price of electronics in a US Best Buy ... make the comparison against what a US department store carries. Even at that, you'll find in many cases goods are relatively more costly in Europe, whether or not taking into account average incomes.
In Rome the major department stores are Rinascente, Upim, Standa and Coin. For most tourists the Upim store at via del Tritone and the La Rinascente store on the Corso would be the most convenient. Rinascente is open 'til 10pm some nights. Zürich has Jelmoli and Globus. Jelmoli is one of the finest department stores of which we know, anywhere. We drop in whenever we're in Zürich. Complete Index
of Ed and Julie's Our Favorites Trip Tips and Tools Copyright © 2001 E.J. Gehrlein Traveling
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hen Ed first started international travel he
became interested in the apparent standard of living in the various countries he visited.
His most enjoyable form of this research was to drop into a department store.
n browsing such a
store one looks for two things: the range of products in a category and their quality, and
the prices. What was apparent in the '60s was that the variety was much smaller than in
the US, the quality not as good, generally though not universally, and the prices much
higher, especially when framed in the context of the average employee's salary.
hat's changed now ...
and how! Some Western European nations now enjoy a standard of living better than in the
US. Europeans have caught up in the availability of material wealth in so many areas, and
seem as well to have caught up in the desire, or mania, to acquire.