David Frank
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​Seattle #25: With the such generous rewards, you're a fool if you don't use credit

16/3/2018

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Fees are rare as retailers and restaurants build that expense into their prices. Credit card rewards here are the most generous of any place I have been, and while flying miles are popular, 1.5% cashback is also common, which is sometimes increased to 5% at supermarkets/restaurants. There are often excellent temporary rewards, like 15% cashback at Macy's Online Dept Store, or 30% off your first purchase at other online stores. Three-month price protection and extra warranties also make credit cards a money saver. 

So if you're choosing to pay by cash, cheque/check or debit card, or you're not eligible for a credit card at all because you have a insufficient credit score (e.g. you're a new resident), you're effectively paying more for everything. It's also another tax on the poor, not unique to this country, but far more than the other countries.

It took months of living here to build up enough credit history to have a credit card, and because furnished rentals aren't really a thing here, the expense of setting up a new home was compounded by the lack of a credit card at the time.
Incidentally, I have also one of those people I never thought I would be. I have joined the hordes of people who are proud of their expensive couch. I've become one of those people.
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​Seattle #24: Vulnerable banking System, cheques ("checks") and cash

9/3/2018

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Gone are the days of direct debiting my bills, only having a debit card, or even using normal checks (not that I ever have.) This is because once someone knows your US bank account number, you're susceptible to fraud. My first few months here I used cash and paid my rent by cashiers cheque. I literally walked down to the bank and had them issue me a fresh paper cheque of their own which I then walked over to my landlord. For bills, cashiers cheques can also be ordered online and automatically printed and posted to your bill provider, which I think takes days. (At least that's how I think it works?)

​Eventually I built up enough credit history to get a credit card, so I use that and no longer need to carry cash, but many Americans do not or can not. This is why those big stores having their credit card systems being hacked is such a big deal - debit cards have inferior fraud protection, and debit card consumers may be out of pocket for months as fraudulent transactions are is resolved.

Mind you, this is better than card-wary, cash-loving Japan, where ATMs close at night and on holidays. My recent trip to Berlin was also frustrating, as card payment is not as common as one might expect. Mind you, I'm not from a country that used to be fascist or experienced economic turmoil on the scales these countries have. 

Having said that, I can pay by credit card everywhere, even the tiniest food trucks, and there is almost never any minimum spend, and extra fees for paying by credit are rare. Split billing at restaurants, usually refused in Western Australia, is also normal here, and very efficient.

Once again, this place, like all others, has both pros and cons.
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Seattle #18: Credit

26/1/2018

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It's everywhere. It seems like every store has their own credit card, and I can't tell you how often salespeople offer me finance on my purchases. It's a big source of income for stores that compete on volume, not margin, and sales staff get commission. Its not only heavily pushed, but also totally normalized, and fits into the "why shouldn't I have something I want" materialistic culture here, which I think also thinks contributes to obesity and massive cars.

Debt statistics are crazy. The average US household is $16,748 in credit card debt and pays a total of $1,292 in credit card interest per year.
Ref: NerdWallet: American Household Credit Card Debt Study

This is also pushed by other financial institutions. If you want a mortgage in some places like Texas, you need to show three mature (older than 5 years) loans or credit cards. If you paid off your car loan, it no longer counts. It is likely that I will get an unnecessary car loan at some point for credit score purposes only.
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​Seattle #12: How judgmental people are of food, especially non-organic food

15/12/2017

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Tonight, a complete stranger in my apartment building walked up to me eating my dinner on the communal rooftop area to point out the BBQ sauce was a cheap one that uses high fructose corn syrup. I checked the label, and sure enough, it's the first listed ingredient, and therefore main ingredient. Something I wish I knew when I bought it. Good to know. Really.

He then went on to explain he only buys organic, and the lack of the word 'organic' on the label' is another reason he wouldn't buy it. I had to bite my tongue before I made a comment about how blindly following such things is foolish. I could easily have given him many specific examples where it's simply a money-maker because the items were organic anyway, there is little or no advantage or a serious disadvantage for certain foods to be organic, or certain foods aren't really organic because of greedy companies labeling non-organic items as organic to boost their profits.

I did that 'smile and nod' thing I have heard so much about. It worked wonders. He moved on to ask what I do and what my thesis is on. Of course I excitedly told him it's on food labeling, and how we can alter consumers perceptions, even taste perceptions of foods through packaging. I grabbed the sauce bottle and used it as a prop to explain how we marketers can get consumers to pay more by making them *think* something is premium, when it really isn't.

He...did not like that. He did not like that at all.

Other label gimmicks are rampant. Chickens here can't be given growth hormones or raised in cages, but every chicken product in the supermarket has to say "hormone and cage free", lest consumers think the company that doesn't do this is worse than the others. Not to mention gluten free items for product types that have no gluten to begin with. 
Game show idea: give three marketers 30 minutes in a supermarket to find as many products that they can that do this. Winner gets a year's supply of fat-free yogurt that is packed wish sugar.


Addendum:
My favorite podcast did an episode on organic food, and I'm stoked they mention the type of research my thesis was on. In blind taste tests people think vegetables *labelled* organic taste better (when it definitely doesn't).
I'm tempted to do a talk on organic food and market it to people who consume organic food, if only for the schadenfreude of being like a person telling a class of kids Santa isn't real.
To be clear, I'm not saying it isn't good, but it is not what most people think it is. Check out the Organic Food episode of Science Vs podcast.
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#8: Buying things. (And their expense.)

17/11/2017

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Moving to a place that doesn't do furnished/equipped rentals is expensive. You have to buy everything, and as a new resident, I had no (and therefore poor) credit history, so was not eligible for a credit card, so no extra warranties, insurance, cashback rewards or points to offset the cost. I suppose traditionally people live at home until marriage, wed early and fill their home thought their wedding registry.

While people acquire items over time, I did the calculations and it's cheaper to sell and give items away and buy new again than to ship items from Europe or Australia to America. Try it yourself. Look at your books, appliances, furniture, clothing, whatever, and see if it’s worth bringing or replacing at £3 / AUD$5 / USD$4 per kg (about half that per LB).

​
By contrast, I lived for a couple years out of my suitcase in Japan. Just look at the size of my central Tokyo apartment in the video below. I happily lived out of a small sized backpack when I backpacked around Asia and lived in Hanoi, but I knew that was all temporary, so I paid a premium for furnished homes. I had no sympathy for my friends who complained they had too much junk. I was busy envying them for having useful everyday items I simply didn't have.

One friend living in her third country who loved living light occasionally played a game called "10 Things," where she would go around the house and get rid of 10 things she hadn't used in a while and didn't really need. Try it yourself, it's great!


Edinburgh was frustrating though. I was reluctant to buy anything to ease my life, knowing I was there for just a few years. Purchases would be a waste, and disposal a hassle. But an American/European couple in Edinburgh whom I was friends with when we all lived in Tokyo put it to me this way: if I do end up buying something, best get it early on, as later purchases will get less use. So I did buy a few things, and was all the happier for it. And that's how a friend was gifted a lovely air-fryer when I departed.

Being able to buy things in the US, while painfully expensive doing it all at once, also felt great. I am finally able to have practical home items, from a blender to a giant shoe horn, and all sorts of things. Owning more than two pairs of shoes still feels weird, but I'm still constantly appreciative of all these little things I wanted for years, and I'm still good at not acquiring junk. And no, I still don'd have any sympathy for people who complain they have too much stuff!

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#7 Tipping and Tax

10/11/2017

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Before moving here I assumed tipping was the same across America, at a flat 15%. It turns out it is...
0% if you're poor and mean, or just mean.
15% as a bare minimum if the service was below-average. Some people just do this all the time though.
20% if it was good.
Up to 30% (and beyond) if it was amazing.

Tax is never included when listed in the advertisement, label or menu. It is layered on at multiple levels, and sometimes invoices show this. Here the taxes are:
Washington State: 6.5%
King County: 3.5%
Seattle city: 0.1%
Total: 10.1%
(Supermarket raw ingredients are not taxed, which is normal in the other places I have lived.)

This makes calculating tips in Seattle easy - just double the tax on your bill. However travel outside the Seattle city zip code (e.g. go to a satellite city), county or state, and your tax, total at the till, and the tip you must calculate change.


It's all become a bit much for me and I've resigned myself to just paying whatever the new total is.
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#6 Buying second-hand here is expensive.

3/11/2017

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It's really weird how used items are not discounted much here.
People often list goods on Craigslist and other noticeboards just 25% below full retail price, and yet items go quick. But savvy shoppers like me can get the items brand new from a discount retailer for the same price.
I actually returned some of the kitchenware I bought at the Goodwill (second hand) store because I found the same brand new, brand-name products for the same price on sale at normal retailers, or at discount retails at the city outskirts.


In fact, there's a more upmarket competitor to Goodwill here called Buffalo Exchange (mostly selling clothing).
Mind you, in Tokyo second hand stores of all tiers and specialties were popular, all the way up to an eight-storey second-hand luxury brand department store called Komehyo in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 
A Google Image Search for Komehyo captures the store quite well, actually. From last year's luxury fashion, to jewelry and more, the place was surreal to browse, and a place I insist all visitors to Tokyo visit.
Picture

​Getting back to my original point, I think the reason Seattle gets away with having a second hand market that doesn't discount much comes down to the rapid growth of the city, both with Amazon, and rotation of students attending the large university. Interesting to me, nonetheless. 
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    About this blog

    Musings, frustrations and wonderment from an Australian who moved to the US having never visited the country before. 

    ​This is the fifth country I have lived in in five years, and if I've learned one thing, it's that every place has its pros and cons.
    ​Published Fridays.

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