There’s a definite price added to living in Paradise. While South Dakota is flooding and California struggles under state budget deficits larger than most nations, we console ourselves with thoughts that living in Hawaii is relatively benign. But we’re pricked with hundreds of tiny barbs that mount up until we realize that the cost of living is real pain. The expense of fuel to ship 90 per cent of goods is only part of it. Most consumer products travel from point of origin to point of purchase. We’re not so different. But since most of our goods come via ship, we pay the healthy wages of the Longshoreman Unions. And there’s the General Excise Tax (not sales tax) that pyramids with every exchange until the final number looks more like 12 per cent than 4.25.
Here’s a mini comparison on grocery basics. The Hawaii numbers are from Safeway, taking full advantage of their savings card. The Utah market is in Park City, resort town not noted for low prices.
ITEM HI UT
Raisin bran $6.49 $3.00
Cucumber 2.49/lb .99/lb
Zucchini 3.49/lb 1.50/lb
Tomatoes reg. 7.44 saver 2.98/lb 1.99/lb
Apples, cheapest reg. 4.22 saver 1.99 .79/lb
Even good old Costco, same items and presumed savings from their huge volume of shipping, tacks on the price of Paradise. Blackberries were two dollars more, but they held the price on coffee.
Food is the one thing no one can do without. We pay double for haircuts, four times as much for car insurance, and don’t even ask about real estate. When we think “Lucky we live Hawaii,” we focus on friendships and climate, the things no one has figured out how to attach a price tag.
