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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

There's a common belief in Poland that the very same goods (down to package/barcode) sold in countries west of it (Germany in particular) are much better in quality than the ones sold domestically. It's especially common when discussing cleaning chemicals - people believe that local products are diluted, or sth. I don't know whether this is a case of "grass is greener on the other side" or it is based on reality.

(And there's one exception to this I've heard of - some people believe here that Lipton tea brought from US tastes much, much worse than one bought locally ;)).

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That's because Lipton is terrible. Seriously the lowest quality and worst tasting tea I have ever tasted anywhere.

Be that as it may, I believe the comparison TeMPOral is talking about is Lipton in both cases.

I'm sure that Lipton would sell the lower quality tea in Poland as well, were it economical to do so.

There is one place in the US that has a tea culture, and it's an iced tea culture. Lipton would most likely sell tea that meets that demand and let's the rest of the tea drinkers cope than, even if it does make a cup of something not entirely unlike tea for people who were raised on the stuff.

Its a historical artifact. The US is the one country iced tea is consumed more than hot tea. This dates back to the revolution and the resentment of tea taxes that lead to coffee being the "patriot's drink". Iced tea became popular in the 1900's.

I laughed when I read what you said. Lipton reminds me of when I would get sick as a child and that is what my mother gave me (this was back when Lipton was the tea there really wasn't much else around at that time.)

I still don't get why would anyone put sugar or other sweeteners in a tea?

Have you ever HAD sweet tea? Real, authentic, Southern sweet tea? The sugar is added while the water is near the boiling point, so it supersaturates.

If the answer is "no", then you have no goddamned idea what you're missing.

In the Czech Republic there is a similar common belief – that the goods that foreign compainies sell here are lower quality than what they sell in richer countries.

Brno resident here, I can whole-heartedly second this. I'm not sure why this is but I've seen and heard it plenty of times.

Same with Afghanistan and Pakistan http://consumersinternational.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/for-ex...

Same in Romania. It might be linked with our communist past. Back then some goods were not available to the public, they were only produced for export, but you could still get stuff that was 'refused for export' if you knew the right people.

Often this just a matter of brand labels being slapped on whatever goods are available or manufacturable locally. The brand gets to enter a new market for cheap and the manufacturer gets to sell for a higher price without changing the product. The consumer gets...disappointed.

IN case of cleaning chemicals, they seem to dilute in Europe from west to east… germans think theirs are diluted and by in spain.

That's especially stupid considering Poland is in the European Union and should have pretty much the same food regulatory oversight as Germany has.

I think that regulatory oversight happens on the national level, at least in Czechia it does. An also, food can be low quality but ok from regulatory point of view (fast food, some non-organic food, etc.).

Food control in the European Union is done at the national level, but the member countries coordinate a lot. Also the EU parliament puts up the regulation that has to be transformed into national law.

I'm sure the sentiment is deeply rooted from the time when Poland was controlled by the Soviets.

>(And there's one exception to this I've heard of - some people believe here that Lipton tea brought from US tastes much, much worse than one bought locally ;)).

Could this be because the US version is sweetened with HFCS instead of the beet sugar used here in Europe? I've heard similar things of American colas.

Lipton tea doesn't necessarily mean pre-sweetened. They also sell bags. It does not seem at all unlikely to me that Lipton pushes lower quality tea in the US market than in markets where people are used to higher quality.

...And people in Belarus think food bought in Poland is better than local.

...And people in Russia think fool imported from Belarus is better than local (probably true)

some consumer agencies actually agree that products for some countries are lower quality http://www.euractiv.com/consumers/food-products-lower-qualit...

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