http://www.saltshaker.net/20061025/re-examining-my-preconceptions Casting a little flavor (and a few aspersions) on the world of food, drink, and life Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:39:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.saltshaker.net/20061025/re-examining-my-preconceptions#comment-8416 SaltShaker » Blog Archive » We could grow up together, E.T…. Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:50:36 +0000 http://www.saltshaker.net/20061025/re-examining-my-preconceptions#comment-8416 [...] Buenos Aires - Yesterday started about six weeks ago. I’d gone to that molecular gastronomy seminar, and at the end of the day, happened to notice an opthamologist’s shop nearby, advertising Accuvue Toric lenses. I wear those. They’re supposedly not available in Argentina. But there was the ad in the window. I stopped in and the doctor assured me he could get them, he just orders them from the distributor in the U.S., takes about six weeks. In New York, for two boxes (24 lenses total), I would pay $147, mailed to my house. I normally ordered them from an online service connected to my eye doctor’s office (my eye doctor is a delight, and a regular reader of this blog, and one of these days is heading down this way for a visit…). The local doc told me he could get them for 179 pesos a box, or 358 pesos total, delivered here to Buenos Aires… hmmm… a savings of about $15 a box, and including international delivery! Not a huge savings, but a nice one, and one has to wonder about the profit margin differences here and in New York, since presumeably the online service in the States is buying them in bulk and getting a better price to begin with than a shop here that orders them one box at a time. And that’s how I ended up yesterday over near the corner of Uruguay and Paraguay, picking up my lenses… [...] [...] Buenos Aires - Yesterday started about six weeks ago. I’d gone to that molecular gastronomy seminar, and at the end of the day, happened to notice an opthamologist’s shop nearby, advertising Accuvue Toric lenses. I wear those. They’re supposedly not available in Argentina. But there was the ad in the window. I stopped in and the doctor assured me he could get them, he just orders them from the distributor in the U.S., takes about six weeks. In New York, for two boxes (24 lenses total), I would pay $147, mailed to my house. I normally ordered them from an online service connected to my eye doctor’s office (my eye doctor is a delight, and a regular reader of this blog, and one of these days is heading down this way for a visit…). The local doc told me he could get them for 179 pesos a box, or 358 pesos total, delivered here to Buenos Aires… hmmm… a savings of about $15 a box, and including international delivery! Not a huge savings, but a nice one, and one has to wonder about the profit margin differences here and in New York, since presumeably the online service in the States is buying them in bulk and getting a better price to begin with than a shop here that orders them one box at a time. And that’s how I ended up yesterday over near the corner of Uruguay and Paraguay, picking up my lenses… [...]

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