Mike's Minute: If it's expensive, does buying local actually work?

If only nostalgia paid the bills. 

But when it comes to peaches, it doesn’t. 

Wattie's is out. Pams do a good line of imported stuff, and those who buy peaches in tins like it cheap. 

A lot of us like cheap. 

Cheap has never been more appealing in a cost of living crisis. If I was in the business of patriotic purchases, I would close my door and go home. 

It does work to a degree overseas. Australia is running an "Australian Made" campaign which has had traction. 

Canada gave it a good push post the tariff debacle. The French are into it. But a place like New Zealand, despite the rhetoric, has never really excelled at being good at backing local. 

Pams do peaches at $0.99. Wattie's is $3.90. They would have to be some pretty spectacular fruit for that price, and that is why Wattie's is out. 

They told us yesterday demand is down. Who needs Brian down the road in Hawke’s Bay when you have fruit from Lord-knows-where at a fraction of the price? 

Peaches are also out of favour. As Greg my hairdresser and I were talking during the week, who buys cans of peaches anyway? 

It's school camp food, he suggested. But he might just be one of those trendy urbanites. 

I walked him down memory lane with my childhood canned fruit salad that had peaches and pears and apples and two cherries. The cherries were the prize. I'd happily burn a whole can of syrupy crap to land the two cherries. 

But here is the thing – one of the tricks in life is honesty. 

When we face these issues, we burn a lot of energy and time on things we know aren't going to work, or are past their used by date, or are a waste of time. 

Marching for Gaza is not saving a single life or stopping the war. 

Turning up at COP30 isn't getting an inch closer to Net Zero and Helen Clark is never going to think more concerts at Eden Park is good. 

We don’t like local anything if we have to pay more than some cheap crap from Vietnam or on Temu. 

It is what it is. 

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