Once upon a time in the west...

Two years ago I was in San Francisco and I needed a charging unit for a video camera.

Someone in the family, a teenager, had forgotten to pack anything useful and I set off in a huff to resolve the problem.

I was in America, the land of plenty I had heard; it should be easy to find something that would bridge the gap between French technology and American electrical circuits.

Wrong.

I ended up in China Town and on the main tourist part I found a camera accessory store that had everything, including what had been un-obtainable without a three month wait in any of the major stores and specialists on Market St.

“How much”

“235 dolllar 15 cents”

I paid.

A week later, I needed a cable to connect digital camera to incompatible laptop and failing again to find one in any specialist shop I returned to China Town.

As I entered the same store as before an angry row was just finishing as two very upset costumers stormed out.

I explained to the man behind the desk my needs; he listened and then said –

“No, you don’t need that, I have something better”.

He passed me a small multi-format card reading device that I could plug straight into the laptop.

I looked at the price sticker.

$235.15.

“I can’t afford this, don’t you have a simple cable?

“Oh, that’s not the price.”

“How much is it”

“18 dollar’

“Why does it say $235.15?”

He gestured to the shelves behind and I saw that EVERYTHING was priced $235.15.

“I still can’t afford it, I only have…” I reached into my pocket and took t everything … “14.20”.

“That’s ok”.

He gave me the reader and went to the till and started to do more things than seemed necessary.

“With tax that’s 15 dollar and ….”

“I don’t have ANY more money” I interrupted.

He looked at me, “where are you from?’

“England”.

“Bah, you are harder than the Italians, ok, $14 dollar 20. Enjoy”.

See -everyone’s a racist!

I wonder what the charging unit was worth, but don’t tell me it will only upset me.