Do you Google a gift’s price point?

Dubai - Through the lens, lightly

There used to be a time, not too long ago, when receiving a gift was an act of simple give and take. You’d be happy with whatever you got. I remember, as a kid, one of my grandmothers giving me ‘toiletries’ hampers on my birthday to make me feel grown up. It had stuff like a jar of shampoo, a couple of soap bars and bright-coloured nail polish bottles, which were to be my very own, that I’d feel awfully “posh” about for the next few weeks. I wouldn’t have to beg my mother to allow me to use her shampoo that was called Halo Egg Shampoo, and gave one “lovely hair, soft to touch” instead of frothing up the communal (and less expensive) one I shared with my brother. I used to be just so happy to get anything, even tacky plastic, miniature television sets where you could roll a strange-looking lever up and down and see images of popular Bollywood stars.

In the days predating online shopping information, the closest I had come to discovering the transactional tag on gifting was the time I accompanied my aunt to a sari shop in Calcutta. She wanted to pick up a few saris for herself, and while browsing the collection, she chanced upon one specimen and exclaimed, “Oh, my cousin gifted me this exact same piece on my birthday [a few months ago].” She then proceeded to ask the obliging salesman its price, and upon hearing it — a very value-for-money sum it seemed — muttered something along the lines of “Now I know how much to spend on her birthday gift next month.”

These days, the best of us have become mercenary. The moment a gift is received, people (at least a good amount of those who are Wi-Fi enabled) go online to check out the currency value. They will claim they go online to “read up” more on these products so they can “use” them better (for instance: if you give someone Bluetooth earphones, they Google it, saying they want to learn about the usage process — even though all details are available inside the box, on a paper trail). But obviously they don’t forget to look hard at the price points displayed: the first intimations that come up are the ‘shopping’ flags, fine-lining how much it costs across various platforms (more or less the same, give or take a few bucks).

Consequently, a weird thing has happened to me. I feel stressed each time I am earmarking, or even thinking of, a gifting potential. Will I be judged that the gift is (perceived to be) too cheap? And will I be judged if the gift is (perceived to be) too expensive?

The reverse is also true. If I’m at the receiving end, many times I’m tempted to go online — and then desist, thinking

it’s unnecessary. Worse, I don’t want to be judgemental: what happens if I discover that (perhaps) the only reason I was gifted a particular object is because there’s a whopping discount on its purchase, one I’d have no clue about unless I’d checked the brand’s site? Best not to go there.

But then, once, a couple of friends dropped by at my place for dinner, carrying a bottle of something potable; they insisted it’s very “expensive” — and went on to reiterate that fact, three times in the space of 10 minutes. I withdrew to another room on some pretext and Googled it, and immediately regretted it: not only was it not very expensive, there was also a deal going on with it, “buy one, get one free”. Made my heart sink a bit. Undercutting, overselling, trading off — surely these are not terms to be used in context of the noble cause of gifting?

Sometime back, I got a friend a box of very fancy soaps (with a commensurate asking price) when I met her for lunch. At the store, I had asked the sweet salesgirl to take the price tag off, knowing fully well it can be Googled — but even if the price point was revealed, I was secure in the knowledge no finger could be wagged at me for ‘being cheap’. My friend loved the box I presented her, how could she not, it was beautifully packaged, in perfectly finessed cardboard and embossed, recyclable paper.

“Open it later,” I offered grandly.

In the evening, she called to say, “Gosh, you really splashed out with my gift — what was the need to get me something this expensive?”

“How did you know it’s so expensive?” I asked rhetorically.

“Er, I looked it up online — but only because they looked so pretty, I had to check out the brand…”

sushmita@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai