Truck and Barter: Cross Border Goods Arbitrage

Appearantly, a small town in eastern Germany, G�rlitz, has the equivalent of Wal-Mart in its area, Poland(If the link doesn't work go to this post at the Corner where I found it):

In addition, East Germans, to a much greater degree than West Germans, fail to see the causal relationship between their actions and the results of those actions. In G�rlitz, for example, a city on the Polish border, people normally do their shopping in Zgorzelec, on the Polish side of the Neisse, because things cost almost half as much there. At the same time, stores are going out of business in Gorlitz and more and more people are leaving because there are no jobs. Gorlitzers complain about this and expect the state to do something -- but they keep going to Poland, where things are much cheaper and business is booming, to shop, fill their gas tanks, and get haircuts.

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Rob wrote:

Perhaps this is a case where the government really does need to do something. I doubt this is a situation where it is more efficient to have your hair cut on the Polish side of the river, whereas with Wal-Mart, it actually is more efficient to purchase socks from Wal-Mart instead of from the local Mom & Pop retailer. Why is there such a dramatic difference in price on either side of the river? The reponse by the government shouldn't be to prevent people from purchasing goods from the Polish side, but rather, to reduce whatever barriers to business that currently exist in East Germany.

-- November 10, 2004 2:45 PM ∞

Brian St. Pierre wrote:

Rob, you're probably right. A better way to put it might be that the government needs to *undo* something!

-- November 19, 2004 1:34 PM ∞

Truck and Barter

Cross Border Goods Arbitrage

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