He has just come out of the Kruidvat in shopping center De Passage in Schiedam, a pack of toilet paper sticks out of his shopping bag. Paul de Roos (65) has his permanent addresses. Once a week he and his wife check where the offers are.
Yes, he is also affected by inflation, although he does not have to make a rigorous adjustment to his spending pattern. His wallet also runs out faster. „But I am in a good situation; in the short term I can handle it. I don’t have to pay much attention.”
Still, he is very concerned about rising prices. It was recently in the news that groceries have become 1,500 euros more expensive on an annual basis: “1,500 euros! That’s a mountain of money. And there is already so much poverty. And the petrol price, it will never fall below 2 euros again.”
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His concerns are not so much about himself, but about the people who are not well off. “They can’t afford it anymore. At a certain point you no longer see a way out.” In one breath: „I am immensely annoyed by the behavior in The Hague: laughing everything away, as if it is not there. Who cares, those expensive groceries? And did anyone have to pay for the Allowances affair?”
If he can no longer make ends meet, he will drink less coffee outside the door. No more terraces, less fun. But those are precisely the things that determine your quality of life, he says. “I recently retired and have lived here.” For fifty years he worked as an administrative assistant at an engineering firm and a health care institution, paid taxes, always “living nicely”.
Liquor is expensive for an “avid Coke drinker”. But he doesn’t just switch to private label: “You are used to a certain standard, you want to stick to it.” Even more expensive is his 24-year-old stepson who still lives at home. But, he says firmly and cordially, it always comes first. His stepson’s girlfriend often comes to stay at the weekend. “Then, of course, you also have to eat. We almost never eat out, but order fairly often through Thuisbezorgd. It’s the weekends, so we want to have a little fun and
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 16, 2022