2023 - January 1st, My Cousin Visited Me and We went For Shopping

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you. It's been a while since I've been here, and the reason is that I went to stay with one of my uncle's sons (my cousin), who just got back from Canada and is going to stay in Lagos for a while before traveling back. My father requested that I accompany him so that I could at least show to him how things work in this place as he had difficulty with his apartment and the city of Lagos which is without a doubt the busiest city in Nigeria. After spending a few days by his side introducing him to the area and explaining how things work around here, I'm now back at home. It was a wonderful and memorable experience, and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with him. Today I'll be sharing one of experience I had at my his side.

The first day I arrived at my cousin's side he was overjoyed to see me, and I was too. The first day was more of gist and discussions, we discussed and talked about life and activities in Canada. He showed me photos of stunning structures he had taken there and described how things functioned.

We discussed about Nigeria, and talked about the Nigeria music industry and how well it has been doing recently. We also compared the music of Nigeria and Canada, and I was surprised to hear from him that some Canadians preferred Nigeria music to their own music. We then discussed the cost of living there, the price of electricity and power here, and he even mentioned that they do pay for the water that we access for free here; this was both surprising and hilarious at the same time.

I was surprised to learn how much things cost in Canada as well, as I had previously assumed that inflation only affected Nigeria. As we continued to discuss Nigeria and compare it to Canada, Despite the fact that it isn't as severe as how it has hit Nigeria, I didn't realize it was also affecting other renowned and developed nations.

The following day, in order to furnish his new apartment with the gadgets and appliances that will make living pleasant and enjoyable, we decided to check out an electronic & home appliance store near his area. There, we inquired about the costs of the available items that will be extremely important to my cousin's home.

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After looking around the store, we decided that the fan and television would be crucial items. The fan was important because of the temperature, so after realizing that there are two main types of fans—rechargeable and non-rechargeable—my cousin opt-in for the rechargeable one, which has the ability to operate for an additional 8 hours when fully charged, i.e. when there is no electricity.

The store owner told us the fan cost N45,000 (Approx 300 STEEM), which was outrageous because it doesn't even cost that much on Jumia (an online super store). He however claimed that the fans sold on Jumia are always made in China and don't last very long. He decided to cut the price to N42,000 (280 STEEM) so we can patronize him, my cousin immediately agreed, but I disagreed because the fan only cost N37,000 on Jumia, and I'm 100% sure they are original because I've been buying products there, especially gadgets.

I told him if he can't sell for N40,000 (266 STEEM), he should forget it, he said he can't sell that the N2,000 is his profit on the item, he keeps begging us to buy but I disagreed and told him N40,000 or no deal. My cousin keeps saying we should buy it, but I told him no, that the man is lying and is only trying to make obscene gains here.

We then check out non-rechargeable fans that only operates when there is electricity. It was sold at a range of N12,000 (80 STEEM) to N30,000 (300 STEEM) depending on the size and brand, the price of the non-rechargeable fans seems like a reasonable price, but I felt the rechargeable fan would be better at assisting the possibility of leading a comfortable life in a location like Nigeria where electricity is unstable.

We also inquired about televisions, and my cousin was interested in the LG LED TV (43 inch) because he claimed it was the same size he uses in Canada. However, when I heard the price, I thought the person was trying to take advantage of us; he said a 43 inch TV cost N120,000 (800 STEEM), but I purchased my 49-inch TV for only N130,000 (866 STEEM) last year. I immediately called a friend who deals with home appliances to inquire about the current price of 43 inch LG TV, and he said it only cost N103,000 (683 STEEM). I was furious and advised my cousin to leave because I thought the store owner was being overly greedy or that he believed we would not buy and would only be interested in pricing.

When we left the store, I was anticipating the owner to give us back, but I was shocked when he shut the door behind us right away. I came to the conclusion that he doesn't want to sell items because he may believe that we are just pricing things for fun.

When we reach home I assured my cousin that we would purchase the items from Jumia, although it will take a few days for the items to arrive, but the items are original and covered by warranty should the item develop fault or issue. My cousin then asked me why the items is extremely cost, he then said we should check out the supermarket that he needs some groceries. After we rested for a while we head out to ShopRite, a large Super market around the Ikeja.

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When we got to the supermarket, I decided to just show my cousin around so he could buy whatever he wanted. He started out by buying some Greek yogurts because Greek yogurt is one of the main components of parfait, and he said he loved eating it. He chose two kinds of Greek yogurt just in case since they presented a variety of brands but he didn't find his favored one. The price of the yogurts was N3,799 (25 STEEM) for the 1 Liter and N1,499 (Approx 10 STEEM) for the 550 ML for each. He picked just one 550 ML since he doesn't yet have a refrigerator to keep the yogurt fresh, he can easily finish the 550 ML yogurt.

He also picked some coconut chips, he told me he couldn't enjoy the Greek yogurt without coconut pieces. So he bought the sweetened and chocolate-flavored coconut chips. The sweetened flavor and the chocolate flavor chips on the other hand both cost 1,900 Naira, which is 12.9 STEEM.

Still at the snack section. He selected the coconut-flavored Konfam chin-chin, which is a popular chin-chin brand in Nigeria. By now, you should be aware of how much my cousin enjoys the flavor of coconut. Additionally, he grabbed a snack of coconut cinnamon balls. Both the coconut ball and the coconut-flavored chin chin were one thousand naira each. Totally at 2,000 Naira, that's approx 13 STEEM.

He mentioned that he also has to buy some granola cereals, which can be had with milk alone or with the parfait. Granola comes in a variety of flavors, but since he is familiar with tropical granola, he chose it. This cost N1,800 (11 STEEM)

Finally, we made it to the milk aisle to complete our shopping. I was interested in milk as well, and while my cousin chose skim milk and soy milk, I opted for full cream milk. It cost a total of N7,600, which is approximated to 50.5 STEEM.

He added some items which includes air freshener, a pack of bathing soaps, liquid soap and bleach for toilet and laundry, shower cap, toothpaste and brush were also added.

The total cost of the items including VAT was N26,099 which is approximately 174 STEEM, we moved to the payment section and I paid with my debit card.

The invoice for our shopping, which includes the items and the cost, is shown in the image above. The price of each Items were converted to STEEM at the current exchange rate of STEEM to Naira which is currently 150 naira per STEEM.

Thank you for reading