Collectibles Markets vs Economy - Why does it have to be this way?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by steve B

Where the heck are you shopping?
I'm going today, I'll make a note of those prices.

Gut feeling having done the grocery shopping for a long time now, most will be about half.

I haven't been to a whole foods or anything like that those places are probably close to the claimed prices.

Ok, went this afternoon, and wrote down some prices. I got a few, because obviously it can vary by product. Ans because comparisons are sometimes interesting
Fairly big local chain (Market basket) right on the line between a fairly affluent suburb and a not as well off city. Stop and shop across the street, so competition may affect the pricing a little.

Ground beef
Claim 11.99
Basic 4.49/lb
"fancy" angus 4.49/lb


2L Coke
Claim 3.75
Coke 3/5.00 = 1.67 each
Pepsi 2/4.00 = 2.00 each
Store brand .99 which is the same price the store brand was when I was in a convenience store IN 1983!
Some places including this grocery store sell he coke 20oz for way more, usually around 2.45.

Cereal
claim, no particular brand or type or size mentioned 6.79
Raisin Bran 3.99
Special K family size 4.99
Chex 2/6.00
Giant size frosted flakes 5.99
Those were typical by company, so every normal sized box by the same company as Raisin Bran was 3.99
Some of the fancy granola type stuff in smallish bags can get into the $6-7 range, but some of it is less.

Chips - here it almost gets interesting
Claimed 5.29
cape cod party size 4.99
ruffles 4.99
Lays 2/6.00
Utz 2/5.00
Store brand about like Utz, but much bigger bag.

Some are closeish, but the claimed prices seem wildly overpriced for almost everything.

Overall, the biggest bargain is the store brand soda, which hasn't increased in 40 years.

Either
Shop around a little, wherever is charging like that is very expensive.
OR
Don't get your pricing from Some blog or Fox or whoever that cherry picks from the most insane stores and most expensive format for each item to make some point. I mean, I once saw some sort of ham that was imported and well over $100/lb. I think it was made from unicorns or something. But I know that's not even close to a regular pound of ham, and wouldn't claim that ham is now $129.99/lb