Can't afford steak, but a big-screen TV is fine
This will pay for a lot of steak - and probably the water and electricity bill, too
Some weeks ago, the Opposition leader said that people are so hard-pressed by their water and electricity bills that when they eat out on a Saturday night (what’s known as amateur night, but he wouldn’t know that), they go for pizza instead of steak.
Maybe now they’re planning to save money by staying in and making television soup and big-screen stew instead.
This is from timesofmalta.com, last Saturday:
“Flamingo salesman Alex Caruana Carabez said he noticed that people this time were not overly cautious with their money and were prepared to increase their budget to get a more sophisticated model.
“Very few are buying TV sets smaller than 42-inch. We sold many 52-inch sets; a sophisticated model with full features. Although expensive, people were prepared to go that extra mile. We had restaurants which spent €20,000 each on big screens and we are still receiving orders,” he said”
“Luke Tabone, sales manager at Forestals, said the World Cup, combined with the launch of HD content by Go and Melita and lower price tags had all contributed to the increase in sales of modern television sets.
He said models bigger than 40 inches were the most popular, with some customers even going for the massive 60-inch flat screen models.”
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Just goes to show how important footie is…more important than boring old cooking.
Ma fhimtux, Daphne. Now he wants steak every weekend AND a 50-inch television AND free electricty bills. Then when he gets their vote he will sing a very different tune…
An excellent article by Mark Anthony Falzon about overdoing the ‘faqar’ argument:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100613/opinion/the-faqar-brigade
[Daphne – I thought so, too. ]
Falzon is one switched-on fellow. Only met him a couple of times, in a professional capacity, but he’s sharp, and it shows.
I have to be frank here. I do not believe every thing a salesman tells me.
Now please let me watch Japan-Cameroon on my new 60-inch HDTV, 3D, DS, PPVP, ABS ETC TV set.
Who said size does not matter?
And I forgot to say that those “massive 60 inch flat screen models” are very popular with hotels for their guest rooms. Pay-per-view is really excellent value-for-money with that size.
I won’t be commenting about the fact that people are buying lots of TVs or whether they are eating pizzas instead of steak.
However I have read with interest your comment about Saturday night dining being “amateur night”, why is this so? We work from Monday to Friday and try to dine out on Saturday night, what’s wrong with that?
[Daphne – Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s called amateur night for the very reasons you describe. The real partiers don’t wait until Saturday. In fact, Saturday’s probably the night they stay home, because the bars are full of amateur-nighters. I’m not the one who coined the name – or invented the habit. I rarely go out anyway.]
It’s called getting one’s priorities right. In this case, it should be to first pay your water and electricity bill, then go out for a steak on a Saturday night, and if there’s enough money left, buy a big screen. With Maltese people, it’s first buy a big screen, then eat a pizza instead of steak, and finally whine that you don’t have enough money to pay the water and electricity bill.
Some American sociologist once commented that a considerable portion of the Maltese populace is a ‘motor-scooter society with a Cadillac mentality’.
Well, many people who can easily afford steak (and W&E bills) still prefer to order pizza when eating out.It’s only Joseph Muscat who doesn’t realise that.
Very true, David. We usually dine out as a break from the daily routine. Since we’re too old for noisy bars, a nice pizza and a good Merlot on a cool terrace are unbeatable. Maybe Joseph still thinks that “biex inkunu bħal ħaddieħor” we have to have a steak, “Li ma tmurx tarana Zeza nieklu l-pizza x’waħda din”.
Jien ma nafx x’naqbad nghid! Il-Gimgha u s-Sibt jekk ma’ cempilx minn qabel ma’ ssib tiekol imkien. U aktar ma’ jkun ‘expensive’ il-post aktar difficli. U noqoghdu nghidu li l-imbid jinbih gholi, li huwa veru, xorta kullhadd l-aqwa nbid ikollu fuq il-mejda.
Dan biex ma nsemmux l-istabilimenti gewwa l-Ghadira li jkunu p-pakkjati anke matul il-gurnata. U kullhadd jinvesti u jiftah il-postijiet godda.
Ma stajtx poggejtha ahjar, Riya.
Tmur fejn tmur – il-gimgha kollha – dejjem ippakkjati. Some time ago I had some foreign colleagues here for a week and had to take them out for dinner every day and for drinks afterwards. Dejjem bil problemi biex insibu mejda. iI-Valletta Waterfront dejjem mimli, il-Birgu busy gravi ukoll, Tas-Sliema mimli, il-Belt mimli… McDonalds mimli, u l-Maxims bil-queue. Imbaghad m’hawnx flus. Paceville matul il-gimgha mimli ukoll, kollu zaghzagh, u dawn min itihomlom il-flus?
Morru sa l-universita, u araw il-hwejjeg li jkunu lebsin hafna mill-istudenti, jew il-karozzi li jkun hemm ipparkjati fil-bays ta l-istudenti! titkexkex. Izjed minn mobile wiehed per person skond l-ahhar statistika, u ma rridux ninsew li element mill-popolazzjoni ghadha tfal u li normalment ma jkollomx mobile (sa 9 snin per exempju).
U bil haqq, xi hadd kien qed jara x’gara fil-bonds ta’ Farsons? Subscribed twice over. iggifieri hargu €20million, u applikaw €60million. Daqt hergin ta l-Eden, Tumas u Izola Bank, u hergin ohrajn ukoll. U m’ hemmx bond issue/share issue wahda li ma tinbieghx fi ftit minuti – dejjem – u jkunu ta min ikunu dawk. Arani sejjer ha nilhaq naqa. Issa fil kaz niekol difrejja ghax ma jibqalix ghaxja ta’ lejla wara.
Le le, kulhadd imut bil-guh qieghed. U tridx thallina, Joseph! Ja bummer u free-rider!
Doesn’t mean anything, give me the percentage of the population who have bought large TVs and eat out at expensive restaurants. The poor tend to hide from places of visible consumption as they will feel like they stand out.
The opinion piece you linked to is nothing more than that. What about a bit of journalism? Some numbers? Our GDP is $10,000 below Ireland. It’s below the EU average where’s all this money coming from?
Case in point, Alex Caruana Carabez mentioned restaurants taking the most expensive models. Either these restaurants are desperate and want to get clientele, even at a loss to show the bank they have the covers covered.
Joseph A Borg; You don’t seem to know much about managing shops/ sales vis a vis the banks. The bank isn’t a charitable organisation.
How can you lose and pay at the same time? For how long, at least? If you don’t pay, you are given a month or two at the most, and then….? Try not paying your insurance policy premium.
The bank isn’t impressed by the number of covers you’ve had on a restaurant night. The bank is impressed by the amount you deposit and its frequency, from sales derived and your punctuality when paying loans and overdrafts.
Our GDP. is lower than that of Ireland, true, but our standard of living is MUCH, MUCH higher than that of Ireland from all points of view. Everywhere you go, there is a problem with homeless people, sleeping rough. There are no people sleeping rough here.
The percentage of the population who bought/did not buy large TV’s is not a measurment in itself. Instead I would count on the total value of the TVs sold.
Selling two leather jackets X €100 each, making 30 o/o profit i.e. €60 g.p. = selling 4 synthetic jackets X €50 each, making 30 o/o profit. i.e. €60 g.p. as well.
Consequently selling, for eg. 5/600 pizza’s a night, yields the same profit as though selling 60 steaks a night.
Like the leather and synthetic jacket. Both contribute towards the GDP.
Not very much. Reading recent stories of how management of large corporations and banks ended up taking increasingly riskier decisions in the hope of striking lucky returns to cancel a bad downturn, I doubt smaller businesses do much different…
I’m certainly not implying all businesses act the same, but I’m simply stating that extrapolating from a couple of choice examples to form the basis for the headline is not good, honest writing in my book.
Banks that close businesses because they’re in a bad patch wouldn’t get much new business. I doubt banks decide to stop serving a particular business simply on what’s in the books…
Insejt wahda importanti, Daphne: bil-prezzijiet ta’ plasma screen konna nixtru – min jilhaq – televixin Grundig 27-inch minn ghand Xandir Malta, toqghod f’serbut nies sa l-isptar, u thallas hamsin lira minn taht biex tiehdu malajr.
Jien ma’ paxxejthomx.
U it-televisions tal-kulur u l-video recorders li kienu jiddahlu bil-kuntrabandu u jinbieghaw sahansitra minn ghand tal-grocer? Bi prezzijiet m-ghola s-sema. Kulhadd jiftakar il-mijiet li kienu marru jirregistraw is set taghhom meta kienet inghatat l-amnesstija biex tigi ir-regolizzata is-sitwazjoni. Il-veru konna pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse.
Iz-zmien wera illi il-politika ta’ suq hieles gabet maghha varjeta ta’ prodotti flimkien ma’ varjeta ta’ prezzijiet. Kif wkoll qabza fil kwalita ta’ l-prodotti li wiehed issib ghall bejgh.
Illum issib kull ma ‘tixtieq, minn qmis ta’ €120 ghal qmis ta’ €25. Kulhadd jixtri skond kemm jiflah.
M’hemmx dubju illi dawk il-hwienet li ibieghu prodotti bi prezzijiet gholja jifilhu jaghmlu dan, ghax hawn hafna nies jifilhu jixtru.
Hu l-akbar prova ta’ dan x’inhi? Dik li izjed hu izjed jifthu hwienet. Ma nahsibx li hawn min jghid li dawn jifthu, bli speranza li jbieghu, biss. jew ghax ‘full-time jobs’ ma jezistux.
Hu xi nghidu ghall progetti kollha inkluz investimenti barrannin fi zmien li ta’ l-opposizzjoni jghidu lill gvern ta’ Gonzi tilef ill-kredibilita’? Trid tkun iblah biex temmen.
Trid tghid, mn’Alla, Muscat ma’ kienx mistieden ghand Gaddafi, taht it-tinda.ghac-celebrazzjoni, ghax kien ihallihom……. you fill in the blanks.
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It’s highly probable that Joseph Muscat has been placed in solitary confinement for promising change and a modern approach to politics and has instead regressed into past Labour tactics.
He has no idea of what’s going on either on these rocks jutting out of the dark blue Mediterranean and less still internationally.
The Maltese were used to paying close to nothing for water and electricity and expect things to remain the same – with the Maltese it’s simply take for free and never ever consider giving anything back in return with a bugger all attitude to what’s needed to be done to protect the national economy…..and Joseph spurns these ideas to gain popularity with the masses.
Keep it up, Joe – forget patriotism. Simply put spokes into the wheels but remember you’re riding pillion.
Wasn’t it Dom Mintoff who had predicted in the mid 70s that there would come a time when the price of water would be more than that of whisky?
Time proved that he was truthful in what he said.
Now, therefore, we have Gonzi doing what Mintoff had accurately foreseen. No more, no less.
The difference is that Gonzi managed to provide us with water (that is potable) and that is by far less expensive than whisky.
This is an interesting phenomenon which mirrors that of the lower social classes (in essence, those on welfare) in the UK.
I read a book called “Wasting Police Time” about the experiences of a Brit copper, who observes that no matter how poor or “depressed” this social band is, whenever he did a house call he always had to compete for their attention with a huge TV plus surround sound system.
@ Vuvuzera
Biex tixtri ‘video player’ kont thallas Lm700, u tal-kuntrabandu. Illum tixtri 7 DVDs b’dawk il flus. Imma fiz-zmien il-Labour konna ahjar! Kellhom bzonn it-tfal tal-llum jafu min xiex ghadda l-pajjiz fiz-zmien il-Labour. Anke il-karrozzi kienu bil-kwota. U l-bazuzli bil-Mercedes u bil-BMWs.
Illum tixtri 7 DVDs b’dawk il flus
Trid tirringrazzja lil Nixon li ħalla ‘l Kissinger jiftaħ il-bibien għaċ-Ċina. Kieku llum nini nini tixtri DVD b’Lm70.
Issa naraw kif se jitilgħu il-prezzijiet la darba ċ-Ċina bdiet iżżid il-pagi lill-ħaddiema, għalmenu sa kemm jiżdiedu l-fabbriki il-Vietnam, Cambodia u eventwalment l-Afrika.
Il-punt ma kienx li dawn l-affarijiet rohsu mad-dinja kollha, izda li dak iz-zmien hawn Malta kienu jiswew it-tripplu ta’ pajjizi ohra minhabba dazju, levies u ma nafx xhiex iktar. Eh iva, naf xhiex iktar… it-tixhim li ridt ixxahham… Ghax ma ninsewx li mil-Gappun (u nsejt fejn iktar) ma seta’ jidhol xejn minhabba xi embargo, imqar jekk parti minnu biss kienet mill-Gappun!
Il-pajjizi tal-Ażja li rnexxielhom ikabbru l-ekonomija tagħhom wara l-gwerra, inklużi il-Ġappun, Korea t-Isfel u Taiwan wasslu għax kellhom kontroll fuq l-importazjoni u żammew kappa fuq kemm l-investiment barrani seta’ jikkontrolla l-ekonomija. Iċ-Ċina hekk għadha!
Dawk il-pajhjiżi li fedħu s-suq tagħhom bla kontroll spiċċaw imdejnin iktar minn qabel… grazzi għall-pariri tal-IMF u l-World Bank.
Dear Daphne,
We ought to thank you for giving us the opportunity to participate in your blog.
The most important/healthy aspect of it is that anyone can comment and participate. Keep up with your excellent work, tough as it may be.
It seems to me that sales of television sets are definitely not a reflection of the poverty that many are today feeling. Yes, there are many managers, politicians, financial services managers making a good buck, but there are many families struggling to make ends meet.