A very large problem in Taiwan is that for the past ten years salaries have been getting lower and lower, while of course the cost of living has risen during that time.
Compared to the west though, the cost of living is still quite low. Even after all these years here, I'm still shocked whenever i open up my electricity or water bill, at how low it is. However this doesn't stop my soul from dying each time I see a price that has gone up. It's hard to see knowing that most people I know haven't gotten a raise for over a decade, or that new employees are getting paid a starting salary almost 70% of what it was years ago.
As for this horrible picture. Just a picture of a bag of teeth cleaning snacks for dogs. It actually highlights my day of running around to a few stores looking for the best price for some chinese books I want to buy, and then going around to a few stores to find this dog snack for my dog.
And in true inflation fashion, this product has gone up in price over 3 dollars in the past two years. But part of this is also the lack of big chain stores. A lot of privately owned stores enjoy the luxury of setting their own prices since there really isn't a strong stable competitor. Prices can very greatly from shop to shop, thus the need to shop around.
