Quite often, when I tell someone that I’ve brought something or that I’ve booked a holiday the first question that comes back is, “Did you get a deal?”.
Getting a good deal now seems to take precedence over choice, quality and availability of any purchase, whether it be a house or a weekend in Vienna (Zzzz).
And why should anyone care? I mean it’s not their money I’m spending, and I can’t imagine for one minute that everyone else is generally concerned about me and Mand getting the most for our money.
A few years ago round my Uncle Sam’s house, my brother mentioned that he’d booked some flights to Barcelona. Almost instantly he was being probed on how much he spent, and replied knowing full well that some bright spark is going to tell him that he’d been ripped off.
“But you were ripped off, I’ve seen flights advertised in the Telegraph for £2, so I don’t know why you’d spend that amount of money”.
It didn’t matter that Chris actually works in the aircraft industry, or had spent hours scouring the Internet for the cheapest price. Most important was the, ‘Did you get a deal?’ Brigade, indulging in the usual ill informed one-upmanship.
Because that’s what this is all about. The better the deal achieved, irrespective of what is actually required, the higher the achievers sense of smug superiority.
“Alan, did you get a deal on your holiday?”
“No but I got a dose of the clap and that was completely free!”