HOME ECONOMICS
The price sticker was small, yellow, and rectangular, reading £1.99 in familiar, convenience store type. Ryan was mid-way through a PowerPoint presentation (Stock Control: An Approach for a Digital Future) when he spotted it on his wrist.
Let’s consider this chart for a moment, he said to his colleagues.
He turned towards the screen and used the subsequent moment of torpid reflection to surreptitiously remove the sticker, folding it neatly in two and letting it fall to the floor.
Moving on, he said, let’s review the forecast for South America.
As the meeting was breaking up and everyone was shaking hands, Ryan found another price sticker, this time on his forearm. It looked exactly like the sticker before, only this one was green and read £8.99. He took this as a good sign. The future of stock control was in safe hands.
The next morning, as he was washing his hair, Ryan found a third sticker. This one was white, and for just 25 pence. More appeared throughout the day. An itch behind his ear revealed a pastel pink £1.99, while an irritant in his shoe turned out to be a baby blue £5.48 lodged between his toes. He noticed several price stickers on the floor around his desk during the afternoon, and as he climbed into bed that night, he extracted an uncomfortable £6.99 from his boxers.
The following day, Ryan woke up to scattering of stickers on his pillow. But it was only when he looked in the mirror to brush his teeth that he realised the extent of the
