mercredi 20 février 2008
One thing I don't really understand about the French is their insistence on still displaying prices in Francs. It's over people! They aren't coming back! Move on!!

It was about six years ago now that all of Europe switched to Euros. Yet (some) people still continue to convert prices mentally into Francs. They do it for comparison purposes. A baguette used to be 3 Francs, now it is 0.70€ which works out to 4.50F! Oh my god! Those darn European politicians who promised that prices wouldn't increase after switching to the common currency should be burned at the stake!
The problem is that they have a number fixed in their mind from a long time ago, so when they do the comparisons now, they aren't taking into account natural inflation.

Most of the people who do this are older French, but not exclusively. I think stores and paychecks should just stop showing the corresponding price in Francs. It would force people to finally make the switch, instead of forever converting from Euros to Francs to Wibbles to Doohickies.

When I first moved here, I would compare with the price in dollars, but after awhile (about four months) I stopped. It doesn't matter what the price would be in dollars. I get paid in Euros. We pay the mortgage in Euros. A tank of gas is so many Euros (so so many!). A trip to the grocery store is on average 30 euros. My reference is in Euros. Make the switch France.

1 commentaires:

David in Setouchi a dit…

If I'm not wrong, prices are still tagged in Francs too because it's the law. They still have to be printed in francs. I don't know how long it will last.

Of course, it doesn't help people to stop translating prices in Euros into Francs...

But then again, when the Euro started some people still counted in old francs that ceased to exist in 1960.

I wonder how it's like in other countries that recently changed their currencies.

Personally, I stopped counting in Francs in 1998. ;-)

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