Redefining 'Cheap'

Stereotype: ‘The Dutch are cheap.’ 

You know the joke: ‘How do you make copper wire? Give a 5 cent piece to a couple Dutchmen & watch them fight over it.’ I heard that joke from my Dad, and he’s Jewish.  

But are the Dutch really cheap? Or are they zuinig? I realized the difference when I went to visit my Dutch mother-in-law. She lives right on the border of Limburg, and every time we show up, she serves us vlaai. I dutifully balance the tiny plate on my knee as she also offers me a cup of coffee on its saucer. And just when I’ve managed that comes the cookie tin. If anything, she’s generous to a fault; not exactly cheap.

It’s when she offers the cookies that it happens. One time, after I chose a cookie, she slammed the cookie tin shut with gusto. And I thought: ‘Ha! I’ve got you!’

I said, teasingly, ‘So, it’s just like they say in the books. You’re cheap with those cookies!’

She asked, ‘What do you mean?’

I explained, ‘You closed the cookie tin so quickly. You must want to make sure I don’t take more than one cookie!’

And she said, ‘No, no… I close the cookie tin so that - when you want another cookie – the cookies, they are fresh.’

And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a different way of looking at it… You actually care about quality.’ Come to think of it, I come from a culture where the cookies stay open until they’re quickly devoured. But this idea of Quality? Efficiency? We Americans just take one look and conclude: ‘CHEAP.’

Granted, sometimes the Dutch take the freshness concept a bit too far.

Me: ‘Where’s my bread?’

My colleague: ‘What bread?’

Me: ‘The bread I bought and put here in the refrigerator.’

My colleague: ‘What bread?’

Me: ‘I bought it yesterday. A full loaf of bread..’

My colleague: ‘Oh, that old rubbish! I threw it out.’

The Dutch are so fanatic about fresh bread that they make it nearly impossible to buy fresh bread.