2004-05-10
The Dutch are notoriously cheap.
At the supermarket today they were out of the cheap toilet paper.
For. The. Third. Day. In. A. Row.
I know this because I've been checking everytime I've swung by until today when we ran out, and Impending Need morphed into Actual Need.
And I wasn't the only stunned and disappointed person staring, jaw slack, eyes glassy, at the empty row.
The aisle was *full* of equally spindthrift (read: cheap) Dutchies.
You could tell which ones were foreigners because they swooped in, indicriminately picked up some floral four-pack, and left the rest of us gawking at the sidelines like bystanders watching a train wreck.
It was so confusing, each of us picking up a toilet paper package, fondling it, checking the price again, sighing, looking to each other for strength, putting it back, repeating the process.
I even left at one point to price shop nail polish removers.
(E8 or E9 for an eensy-weensy bottle! Are you kidding me? It's $1.99 for a two-liter, five-year-supply of nail polish remover in the States. This is a travesty I should address with the Embassy.)
But I returned, picked up a fluffy pink eight-pack, and made my way to the check out queue.
betholindo at 6:06 p.m.