Unless you sell stuff on ebay, or have a particular, Christo-style interest in having things securely wrapped, you may not appreciate this, but here in Korea you can buy a human-sized roll of bubble wrap for only 3000 won. Well, a small human-sized roll.

In the US this would easily be ten times the amount, meaning there is an alarming bubblewrap gap.

Coupled with the incredibly low prices of boxes of all sizes and descriptions, and the price of packing tape (free at the post office and most supermarkets) it does indicate that the world packing business might well migrate to Asia. It may explain why this nation is blessedly free of "Mailboxes" type stores. And free of check cashing businesses as well. And no Liberty Tax Statue of Liberties dancing at intersections as blanket my neighborhood at home Lay it down to those old bugaboos so foreign to the US these days: "booming economy" and "industrial productivity" and "high savings rate"

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