I paid $1.46 for gas today — came in under $25 for the tank of my big ol’ minivan. Just a few short weeks ago, it was $3.99 if you could find it; my tanks were around $60.
I understand corn and soybean prices have also plummeted. So why does my grocery bill keep going up? Yes, I know the Coke and ice cream bribes for the 13-year-olds play a role. But if corn is down, why is Coke (corn syrup) up? Food prices are down in India, in China. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good economic explanation . . . But here’s my tinfoil-hat rant for the week. (And it has nothing to do with hotdogs coming 10 to a pack and buns in 8s or 12s. ) I have observed, over many years of Publixing and Krogering, that once prices go up for some definable reason, they don’t necessarily come back down when said reason goes away. A few years back, whitefly destroyed a canteloupe crop and prices doubled. Never came down the next year. And I’m betting rice stays twice what it was a year ago and bread keeps nudging on up toward $4 a loaf.
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
1 Comment
December 14, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Well, at least prozac is prepared in generic form. Yes, I know prozac is not a food item per se but it is cheap with a good prescription card.
The thing that interest me in a very small way is that food prices vary from one region of the country to another (even from one county to another). Food prices are probably 10%-20% less in Forsyth County, NC (Winston Salem) versus Cobb County, GA and in rural Indiana, costs for meat and staples cost at leat 25% less then in Metro Atlanta.
Paid $1.49 a gallon for gas the other day. I’m not going to get use to it. Prices will go back up in the next 4,6,8 months.