Nice change in the tchotchke trade. The dollar store reminds me of that barge the Khian Sea, the one that floated for years in the late '80s looking for a port to dump its waste. Like stale office air, the world's junk just gets recirculated. Until you take it home. I was, to coin a phrase of the enchanted realm, charmed.
Value is relative.
For years, I believed it was because expensive shoes were more comfortable. Then I wore them. Prices are frequently born not so much of utility as of myth, packaging, and ads featuring women in tight sweaters. You question why the chips here are 50 percent less than the ones in the grocery next door. You begin to wonder if it isn't because they were packaged during the Carter administration.