Funny thing about living abroad, after awhile you start to think a lot about things that really don't matter much to anyone else. Take for example this fascinating tidbit of information I gained while shopping for peanut butter the other day. In my local store, which happens to sell a decent variety of western foods and American brands, I was checking prices on peanut butter. Here in Egypt peanut butter is available, but it doesn't have the cultural importance that it carries back home in the states. I found that there were 4 brands available: local brand A, which looked a bit sketchy; local brand B, which looked like an option; JIF (yay!); and Skippy (yay! again). Of these 4 brands A was the cheapest at around 18 Egyptian Pounds (L.E.), B was more expensive at 24L.E. and Skippy was only a little more at 26L.E., but JIF was a whopping 36L.E. Puzzled... prior to coming to Egypt I never had the impression that JIF was a superior peanut butter. Normally I buy peanut butter based on which one is on sale and I consider JIF and Skippy to be equal in nearly every respect. Both are good quality product with well known American brands. After all Choosy Mom's Choose JIF and I heard that Annette Funicello once hailed the Skippy jar. Actually I often lean towards Peter Pan, but that is another story. Back to the point.. why is JIF 35% more expensive than Skippy? The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps JIF has an ad campaign here and Skippy doesn't, which may mean that to Egyptians, Skippy is second rate no-name stuff. Whatever the reason I think I have a new slogan for JIF.... "Suckers Choose JIF"