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Wednesday August 8, 2007
Four-Seven-Eleven
At the group dinner in Montpellier I sat with Randy - an American colleague of many years standing - and in passing he mentioned 711 stores in the US not really living up to their name any more (in that they open all hours and not just 7am until 11pm). This led me to tell him about my first time in California in the 1980s, and that I really did not connect "711" with the hours of opening. I am still not sure when I even finally made the connection. However at the time, all it reminded me of was Auntie Glad and a perfume from years ago called "4711". I remember it on her dressing table with its pretty blue and gold label - and how my Mother was a bit scornful of it (I think she thought it a bit old fashioned, preferring Lanvin's Arpège).
As often happens, not a week or so later, I was browsing my 1937 Stitchcrafts and found a full page advert in the Christmas edition, which I reproduce here for your delight. In the 1960s it had a catchy TV jingle as well.
These 4711 products were by no means inexpensive (see footnote **). See the cologne is ten shillings and sixpence - which is half a guinea. Although this translates to only 52.5p today, it is hard to provide a true view of the value, even if you tried taking inflation into account it would be perhaps twenty or thirty pounds - in fact just about the price of perfumes today.
However this does not give a true view of an average person's ability
to afford it, compared with today. Years ago, people could live on very
little money for food and rent, and "luxury" goods were relatively
a lot more expensive, whereas now it is possible to own TVs and mobile
phones even when you are really quite poor. You could say for example,
that in the 1960s you started work at 17 on a salary of about 7/6 a week,
(living at home with Mum and Dad) - so this perfume exceeded a week's
wage. Looking at starting salaries today, this makes the perfume about
£500. So even though my salary may be only 10 times what it was
in the 1970s, my relative ability to buy perfume is far more than 10 times.
Lets not even start on why "luxury" goods are relatively so much cheaper for us today....
**Footnote: I am amused to find that this perfume is still available today, is not so very expensive, (around £9 for 50ml), and there is a wealth of fascinating information on its origins.
Posted by Christina at 8:17 PM. Category: Oddments and stray thoughts
