Sticker Shock

While things aren't terribly different between Canada and Australia they are there and mainly in the cost of two BIG (well to me anyway) things. Those being:

1. Internet
2. Coca Cola or other name-brand pop

I will address issue #1: When I lived in Canada, Korea and Japan I didn't know that such a thing as a bandwith cap existed. I figured everyone paid a flat fee and got all the internet their heart desired. I've now discovered, that those down under don't think the same way. Not only are you capped but miniscule amounts of internet are enormously expensive. 400MB per month (which is practically nothing) cost $20. Finding that this wasn't nearly enough we upgraded to 15GB which raised our bill to a whopping $60 (in comparison in Calgary we paid about $35 a month for unlimited high speed). What happens when/if we pass these thresholds? We're slowed right down to a crawling pace at which you can barely check your email. This may seem petty to a great many of you who only use internet for email but for me, it's entertainment and a fountain of information.

Issue #2: Okay, I don't drink litres and litres of Coca Cola a week or anything but WHY is it so expensive?? A regular 2 litre bottle of Coke will cost you, at best, $2.50 (I say at best because this is the price on SALE at a grocery store). I recently bought a 500mL bottle of pop from a convenience store for $3.10. Is all pop imported, is there no packaging plant within Oz? Is Coke so damn popular that they can afford to hike the price as they do? Do they have a monopoly? At least this way I won't be buying pop but once a year or so.


Other things that I've noticed are clothing labels. Let's take Levi's for example. Will loves 501's (even though they're hideously ugly). I think he can get away with paying about $30 or so in the States. How much were they in Melbourne? $110. That's right, we won't be buying Levi's here either. Will and I are horribly cheap people.

At least it isn't as bad as Japan...