"Madam, what flavor of drink do you want?" After Jenny took her favorite jasmine tea drink, she asked Alice who was still hesitating in front of the shelf.
"I don't even know how to choose. There are so many types here." Alice looked at the dazzling array of drinks on the shelves and found it difficult to choose.
The beverage products here include apple juice, vinegar juice, green tea, black tea, oolong tea, jasmine tea, herbal tea, chrysanthemum tea, rock sugar snow pear and so on.
They are all packed in different ceramic bottles, with various colors and graphics, and the colorful packaging is very beautiful.
For Alice, who had never had any drinks and didn't know the taste, it was indeed a bit difficult to choose.
"Ma'am, do you usually drink black tea?" Jenny asked.
"Yes. I have the habit of drinking black tea for afternoon tea." Alice replied.
"Then you can try this black tea first. If you don't think it tastes good, then change it!" Jenny pointed to one of the products and recommended.
"Yeah, that's okay." Alice picked up the bottle of black tea recommended by Jenny on the shelf.
The streamlined body of the bottle is very smooth, and it must have been specially designed. The pattern on the bottle is the word "black tea" written in cursive, with a picture of blue-green tea leaves next to it. The overall look and feel of the bottle is very comfortable.
"This bottle is so beautiful. If it can be shipped back to London and sold, it should be able to sell for a lot of money." Alice couldn't help but muttered.
At this time, Kennedy and Jerry also chose their own drinks.
Kennedy got chrysanthemum tea and thought the chrysanthemums on it were particularly beautiful. Jerry took the rock sugar snow pear, because he felt that the writing on it was very good.
After getting the drinks, they wandered into other areas of the supermarket.
In the daily supplies area, there was nothing more than some rice, flour, grains and oils, etc., and they were not very interested in them.
However, when they passed the condiment area, they found that there were many people queuing up.
"Oh, my God, Kennedy, my brother, look what that is." At the end of the line, Jerry saw a large counter with white sugar protruding from it.
"That's white sugar? So much white sugar." Kennedy couldn't help but be stunned.
There is so much sugar on display, so there will definitely be no shortage of sugar here. If this could be shipped back to Europe, it would definitely fetch a lot of money.
"Jenny, help me ask about the price of the sugar. If the price is right, I will take all the sugar here." Kennedy said to Jenny, who was chatting with Alice.
"Hey, man, you can't do this. This thing is for everyone, and I want some too." After hearing Kennedy's words, Jerry immediately protested.
"Oh, my God. Jerry, you are my dear friend, how could I forget you? We will share it after we buy it back." Kennedy said cheerfully with a smile on his face immediately.
"That's pretty much it." Jerry also smiled.
…
"Sir, I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm afraid this won't work." Jenny's refusal ruthlessly interrupted the friendly discussion between Kennedy and Jerry.
"What does this mean?" Kennedy asked unhappily.
"Sir, you may not be very clear when you first come here. There is such a rule here. In order to prevent robberies on some relatively cheap items, there will be purchase restrictions." Jenny quickly explained.
"The sugar there has been marked as a restricted item. Each person can only buy one tael at most per day. There is another feature of restricted items. Only people from their country are allowed to enjoy the low price. Otherwise, they have to follow the instructions marked on the supermarket. Buy at regular price.”
"I just took a look. If we want to buy sugar, the price is 35 cents per tael."
"Shit, purchase restrictions? Is there such a thing in this world? Then how do they know who is from their country?" Kennedy couldn't help but exploded.
"It's very simple. For example, in terms of appearance: we are definitely not the same. And for some Annan people, Koreans, etc. who are similar to them, they have to be identified by their ID cards issued by the court." Jenny searched her mind knowledge, answer it as simply as possible. !
"Jerry, do you ever feel that things here are like one link within another?" Kennedy said.
"Don't say it, it seems like that's really the case." Jerry nodded in agreement.
"Jenny, are those people over there queuing up to buy something?" Kennedy asked, pointing to the queue not far away.
"Sir, if I guess correctly, they should be buying toilet paper②." Jenny replied after looking over according to Kennedy's finger.
"Jenny, what is toilet paper? What is it used for?" Hearing this, Alice next to her asked curiously.
"This is also an item that was only released in the last two months. It is a very white and soft paper that can be used to wipe hands and face, and can also be used after going to the toilet." Jenny replied.
"Madam, you don't know, this thing is so useful. I can tell you for sure, once you use it, you can't live without it."
"You should also know that when we go to the toilet in Europe, most people use hemp ropes, wooden sticks, etc., which are rough and may cause damage to themselves. As for rich people, they can also use cloth to wipe them and then let the servants wash them. Clean it before use, some poor families even wipe it with their hands or just don’t wipe it to save trouble.”
"This toilet paper is not only clean, but also soft and comfortable to use. The key is to throw it away directly after use, which is very convenient. It can be said that as long as women have used it, there is no one who does not like it."
"There is such a good thing, is it also limited to purchase?" Hearing this, Alice felt a little eager to see the real thing.
"That's right! It also has purchase restrictions, but it's no longer targeted at foreigners." Jenny organized her words and replied.
"What does this mean?" Although Jenny did speak English, Alice had no way of understanding what she meant.
Note ①: Although my country had related white sugar technology in the Ming Dynasty, the production was limited and it could still only be used as a high-end condiment.
The price of sugar exported in the Qing Dynasty: in the 28th year of Kangxi's reign: one tael was priced at 17 Wen; in the second year of Yongzheng's reign: the price of one tael was between 28 and 30 Wen; in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign: the price of one tael was 30.05 Wen. (In the 21st year of Qianlong's reign, a day laborer's salary was about 10 Wen.)
For Europe at this time, although the price of sugar had dropped a lot from the previous luxury goods, it had to wait until after 1850 before it gradually became a mass consumer product.
②: There is no doubt that toilet paper became popular in my country only after the 1990s. During the Qianlong period, those who could use toilet paper were wealthy families, and the wealthy middle class only used toilet paper. As for the rest, everyone had their own methods.
At this time, Europe was not necessarily better than the Qing Dynasty, on the contrary, it was much worse.
