Heading home I spotted the new Paul branch in new Cairo, being a fan of the French bakery shop I couldn't resist stopping by for a casual bite, with their scrumptious olive bread in mind I parked my car in front of their perfectly designed building, I need to explain here that I'm not new to Paul as a matter of fact I've frequented it in at least two countries, I even have a short list of favourite sandwiches that I usually order without looking at the menu, which I did. Choosing to sit outside I quickly ordered my usual roast beef sandwich with a cappuccino.
15 minutes later (7 bites of heaven) I asked for the bill. 80 Egyptian pounds doesn't sound like a significant amount of money these, but when I factored in the size of the sandwich I realized each bite costs a around 1 Euro, making it by far the most expensive sandwich I've ever had, the champs elysees branch is slightly more expensive, but being right in the middle of the street, and having a French staff on board it makes sense, what doesn't make sense though is having the same sandwich here in Egypt where food and labour is dirt cheap for around the same price. This actually mean that this branch generates a higher return on investment (ROI) than the one in the middle of the most expensive street in the world, I still had their olive bread in mind when I casually signed the credit card receipt making sure to add a smiley face and a couple of match stick men eating sandwiches (I'm currently experimenting with how creative I can get with credit card receipt signatures).
I stepped into the restaurant and instantly realized that it was packed with micro celebrities, I headed to the bread stand and ordered a loaf of their olive bread, now that's something I've eaten in Paris as well as in Qatar, if there is a standard Paul product it'd be their bread with olives by far the most expensive loaf of olive bread I've bought (even more expensive than the French one) I paid 28 le for it and adding in that I just had to get a macroon and that pretentious looking tart I ended up paying another 80 le. Naturally that involved waiting for around 30 minutes till they got my order ready.
Leaving the place I couldn't help thinking about these people queuing up for subsidised barely edible bread, that they can barely afford, my porter's daily salary and how many loafs of that bread can it get him, social injustice is a term that I couldn't escape, he actually pays the same sales tax I did, so in a way the government's bread and Paul's are both taxed the same way, which is rather irritating and unjust.
I don't mind buying expensive stuff, what I do mind though is being taken advantage off...I know for a fact that getting French employees and a store overlooking the Champs is insanely more expensive than getting a store in el tagamo3 el khames and hiring Egyptian employees, also I know for a fact that our produce is sold at a fraction of the price similar things are sold in France (Or Qatar), so why on earth is it more expensive than either, am I being taxed by Paul for liking their products? or the customer segment they target don't really care about the price and don't really care about being taken advantage off.
Finally turns out the olive bread I've been fantasizing about all day was half burnt and barely edible, which means I have a lot in common with the people who struggle everyday to get subsidised barely edible bread, but instead of the 5p they pay I ended up paying 560 times that amount.
15 minutes later (7 bites of heaven) I asked for the bill. 80 Egyptian pounds doesn't sound like a significant amount of money these, but when I factored in the size of the sandwich I realized each bite costs a around 1 Euro, making it by far the most expensive sandwich I've ever had, the champs elysees branch is slightly more expensive, but being right in the middle of the street, and having a French staff on board it makes sense, what doesn't make sense though is having the same sandwich here in Egypt where food and labour is dirt cheap for around the same price. This actually mean that this branch generates a higher return on investment (ROI) than the one in the middle of the most expensive street in the world, I still had their olive bread in mind when I casually signed the credit card receipt making sure to add a smiley face and a couple of match stick men eating sandwiches (I'm currently experimenting with how creative I can get with credit card receipt signatures).
I stepped into the restaurant and instantly realized that it was packed with micro celebrities, I headed to the bread stand and ordered a loaf of their olive bread, now that's something I've eaten in Paris as well as in Qatar, if there is a standard Paul product it'd be their bread with olives by far the most expensive loaf of olive bread I've bought (even more expensive than the French one) I paid 28 le for it and adding in that I just had to get a macroon and that pretentious looking tart I ended up paying another 80 le. Naturally that involved waiting for around 30 minutes till they got my order ready.
Leaving the place I couldn't help thinking about these people queuing up for subsidised barely edible bread, that they can barely afford, my porter's daily salary and how many loafs of that bread can it get him, social injustice is a term that I couldn't escape, he actually pays the same sales tax I did, so in a way the government's bread and Paul's are both taxed the same way, which is rather irritating and unjust.
I don't mind buying expensive stuff, what I do mind though is being taken advantage off...I know for a fact that getting French employees and a store overlooking the Champs is insanely more expensive than getting a store in el tagamo3 el khames and hiring Egyptian employees, also I know for a fact that our produce is sold at a fraction of the price similar things are sold in France (Or Qatar), so why on earth is it more expensive than either, am I being taxed by Paul for liking their products? or the customer segment they target don't really care about the price and don't really care about being taken advantage off.
Finally turns out the olive bread I've been fantasizing about all day was half burnt and barely edible, which means I have a lot in common with the people who struggle everyday to get subsidised barely edible bread, but instead of the 5p they pay I ended up paying 560 times that amount.
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