Of Spanish and French Strawberries

The straberries on the upper part of the pictures are French Gariguette whereas the ones below are Spanish (I have no idea what variety of strawberry is it). It is still early season for strawberries because the french gariguettes are among the first to ripen in early Mai. Hmm....thats not the point anyway. The thing that alarms me the most is the price difference between the 2. The french gariguettes costs 7.80€ per kilo while the spanish one costs 2.5€ per kilo, about a third cheaper. More surprising is that in the 5 minutes that I loitered around the stall, most shoppers chose the one which is 3 times more expansive than the other without even considering the price.

From what we study in economics, prices can be however high they want if the consumers perceive that the utility, or satisfaction they gain from purchasing the item is worth it. Sceptical that the french gariguette is worth 3 times more than the spanish variety, I bought both to try them out:
The gariguettes: Are younger, more tender, a tad bit sweeter, has firm flesh and less acid then the spanish ones, brighter in colour
The unknown spanish variety: Older, less tender, abit less sweeter, flesh abit more firm and tasted more acidic, darker.

As a poor student, I feel that as long as I get those freaking vitamins, magnesium, zinc and iron, I don't give a damn if it's abit tastier but costs like 3 times more. However, for the average affluent french, taste and patriostism matters perhaps alot more. :) Yeap, I wrote all these because i have nothing better to do in a boring Sunday afternoon.


-gAvIn-