In terms of shopping, everyone looks for value. If you are buying stocks buying value means trying to determine when a stock is underpriced and with likely rise as investors see why it is undervalued. In terms of shopping, people look for sales and buying brands at good prices. Every day and every week shoppers who shop at grocery stores will see ads which say buy an item because it offers value this week. Next week there is a different item for sale. As the price of an item goes up there are often more than one way to look at what is value.

In an article by David Dolan of Reuters, wealthy tourists are flying to Japan from across the Southeast Asia to buy high-end clothes and handbags at a discount thanks to the weak yen currency.

Some tourists are not buying the goods in their home country, but flying to Japan and shopping. This is good for the shoppers, but not so good for the luxury goods sellers because they can not raise prices to accurately reflect the currency leaving them with lower margins in Japan, at least while the yen stays weak.

An example is Louis Vuitton’s popular Alma BB handbag sells for $2,050 in China and $1,875 in Japan and last month when the yen was lower, was going for $1,725.

The yen would have to strengthen to about 136 to the dollar to put the bag’s Japanese price at parity with China. The currency was at 149.3.

Japan had a record 3.1 million foreign visitors in June putting it on track to beat an annual record of almost 32 million foreign visitors in 2019.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, with increased communication and ability to travel, people love shopping and saving money or finding good deals. It happens at the shops in your area and across the world. Where there are bargains, people figure it out relatively easy which makes business very competitive all the time. If the countries nearby offer similar goods and services, people will cross the border to buy, it is something most people have done and will continue to do. The problem for business is trying to capitalize on that trend because at some point in time the currency will be move towards parity and for some the growth expected will not happen as something has changed. When you are investing, try to remember about cycles of the economy.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.