When was it that I packed up all the stuff? Oh yeah, it was March 21st. The latest estimate has us finally receiving the container next Tuesday. That's about 2 1/2 months later. Don't think I'll be doing anything like this again, but if I do, I've learned a few things.

With any luck we'll be moving into the new house tomorrow. Notice that this is happening a few days ahead of actually having stuff to move into the new house. Oh well.

So far the hardest thing to get used to is the sticker shock. There are very few discount stores, but even if you adjust for the relative valuation of the Australian and US dollars, things still cost about twice as much, sometimes four times as much. Wages are about the same or less. It's interesting to ponder where all this profit is going. I know what some of these Chinese goods cost wholesale. Then there's duty, GST (General Sales Tax), and hefty markups. A discount here is 10% off list price, which is usually double the US list price. In the states, a typical discount in 2007 is 10% above cost.  The Australia dollar is worth around 20% less than the USD (and gaining rapidly).

This is a long way of saying that the retail environment is in a different world than that which I left. It's still possible to make a profit in retail. However I'm in no great hurry to jump back in to that fray. Once bitten, twice shy. But self employment is getting to be a likely possibility. More on that at another time.