Smart Gift Giving — How to Be Perceived As Generous While Spending Less

Or why you shouldn’t shop for value when it comes to gifts

Image by the author (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How do you give someone a good gift? It’s not easy, is it?

Well, let’s consider how the Japanese do it. Maybe we can learn something from them.

Japanese sticker shock

If you enter the Sembikiya fruit parlor in Tokyo, Japan, you’ll probably immediately turn around thinking you’ve entered a jewelry shop instead of a grocery store. And if you don’t turn around right away, you’ll surely do once you look at the prices:

• $21 for an apple,
• $64 for a small box of grapes,
• $164 for a box of cherries,
• $212 for a single watermelon.

Yep, sticker shock isn’t unique to wedding garments and the latest tech gadgets. And the above items aren’t even extreme considering how much you can spend on fruit in Japan. For instance, in 2019 two cantaloup melons were auctioned off for a jaw-dropping $45,000 or $22,500 each.

Image by the author. Based on a photo by Kenny Timmer on Unsplash.

Now, of course it’s not grandma who buys these fruits on a random weekend to make some fruit jam. These obscenely expensive fruits are bought as gifts on special occasions. It’s a tradition in Japan and a clever one — and not just for the farmers.

The genius of gifting premium fruits — take 1

Before you write the Japanese off as crazy, consider this.

Imagine you invite me over for the holidays. You’re in the kitchen doing the dishes when I knock on your door. You dry your hands on a kitchen towel, walk over to the front door, and, when you open it, it’s me standing there:

Image by the author (CC BY-SA 4.0)

I have a big smile on my face and am holding a gift in my hands. After greeting me with “Heeeey! How good to see you!”, I hand you the gift. You…