Back and forth in a retail crisis

"Could you tell me what you have in the truck please sir?"

It was, of course, inevitable that I should be pulled in at Portsmouth customs on my way back to France. I was driving a big utilitaire (rental van) back to France after a flying visit to the UK.

"Do you have any guns, explosives, knives or other weapons?"

No, obviously not. But, in some ways, what I had in the van tells an interesting story about the relationship between France and the UK. And may, in its own way, become explosive in time.

In the back was our kitchen including all the electrical goods, a new jigsaw, several bags of horticultural compost, two shower screens and two cases of Marston's beer. Apart from the beer (just because I wanted an occasional British taste for our Apéro) everything else was bought in the UK for financial reasons.

The kitchen was significantly cheaper to buy in the UK compared to the quotes for the same quality that we had received in France and was fully assembled (hence the need for the big van ….). The comparison for the electrical goods was very revealing; we knew exact makes, models and types that we wanted and I’ll take the price of the oven as an example. The UK price was 65% of the French price, the difference on this one item alone paid half the crossing price, amazingly the difference on the built-in microwave oven more than paid the van rental. It’s true that we were only doing internet price searches but the price differences were startling and these are on two products that, when we purchased them, turned out to have been made in Germany. So, it’s cheaper to ship something to the UK and then ship it to France than ship it to France in the first place …. ?

The worst thing was one of the fridges that was cheaper to buy in the UK turned out to have been built in …… France.