expat moment

As I was emailing my service bureau with my new address, I suddenly realized how many of my "things" are on planes and warehouses throughout the world right now. I have a set of prints that people have ordered which are being loaded onto a van bound for the airport as I write this. The do it yourself speaker kit which I ordered is en route (probably on a truck) from germany. My amplifier control vacuum tubes will be shipped tomorrow from Hong Kong. My workhorse Fuji medium format cameras are still being delivered by the idiots at chronopost, and are in a warehouse somewhere in JFK. And the reasons?

There aren't any service bureaus in france with the kind of printer I need (and even if there was I couldn't afford it). So I do business with a company I trust in California.

Speakers and anything else electronic (like 1920s era vacuum tubes) cost about 2 times more than the already overinflated stereo prices charged in the US, so I buy from Germany and Hong Kong.

Fuji france wants the price of the camera to repair my 8 year old GA645i, so I have to ship my cameras to the Fuji repair center in Edison NJ. This makes sense in a way because I bought them in the states, but still!

The punchline is that the French are taxing themselves out of many markets. As an example, many professional French photographers end up saving money by flying to Hong Kong and New York for their gear purchases, compared to buying in France. And yes, that includes the plane fare.