There’s this street slang that goes, “the difference between plantain chips and pekere is packaging.” Who can relate? This slang suggests that one can easily distinguish quality from mundane by the packaging but I wonder if this is always the case…

Because I sought to buy a branded earpiece the other day and the salesgirl brought out two earpieces, same brand and went, “This one is N1,500 the second is N2,000.” Typical curious me, I asked, “What’s the difference?” Her response? “The N2,000 own has a better sound quality.” Would you believe it, the N2,000 earpiece (more expensive option) was in an ordinary nylon while the cheaper one was in a fancy case. To the untrained eye, the cheaper one seemed to be of better quality if one were to go by the packaging…

Which drives home the point that not all that glitters is gold. This is not however to suggest that quality should be presented in a shabby manner, after all, appearance has always been a letter of recommendation according to my university professor.

I guess at the end of the day, one can only hope and pray for enough discernment to be able to correctly distinguish quality from mundane regardless of the packaging.

Warm regards,

Adefolake

*image credit: http://www.google.com