Money, in the eye of the beholder

I was shopping for fruit at a Bangkok supermarket, feeling rather perplexed. There I was, a Singaporean earning a salary that was easily many times that of the average Thai. But I was reluctant to spend. The items on offer were even more expensive than Singapore prices: normal-looking small apples at S$1 each, withered navel oranges going for S$2, and bags of grapes going for S$15.

As I found out, I was in no normal Bangkok supermarket. Rather, it was within one of the poshest malls in the city. It catered to the top one per cent of Thais, as well as foreign tourists and expats who didn't know any better.

We know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One person's preferences can be very different from another's.