Patio Furniture

Can someone please tell me why patio furniture is so expensive in the US? I mean, it is just not expensive, it is SUPER expensive. Bedlinen is another thing too, being super expensive. Two things we should have brought with us from Germany. All of a sudden Bauhaus and Obi seem really cheap, and even the bedlinen and towels seam quite reasonable. Can't get my head around it, is there a special import tax on all three things? We have struggled soooo much with buying towels. Once upon a time I bought towels (not cheap) at Bed Bath and Beyond. They are now falling apart. The ones from Bloomingdales are still looking great but my old towels bought in Sweden at Hemtex and in Germany at Habitat are still looking fabolous after 8 years plus. So much about unnecessary cost.  As you might have guessed, we spent the day yesterday looking at patio furniture, no luck whatsoever. So we are back looking online.The retail market in the US is definitely taking place online. Amazon has become my best friend! Anything can be bought and shipped within 2-3 days, easy to return if it doesn't fit. However, when it comes to certain furniture, I am the kind of person who likes to touch and sit on the chairs I am going to buy. Hence the furniture hunting in the stores. Even went to IKEA to have a peek but there selection was extremely poor (and I couldn't even buy some Swedish food to cheer me up, however, I did spot the original Kalles again so maybe baby the original brands are sneaking their way in again). We ended up going to Fashion Island for lunch and some baby clothes shopping.

Now to something so much more delightful - we are going to Palm Springs next week!! It will be a long weekend, leaving Friday morning doing a detour via the outlet mall and back Sunday night. Pool time, some sightseeing and in general just take it easy - that's the plan!