Inflation Fighters: McDonald's and Steve and Barry's
We hear a lot about bad news about inflation, agflation, higher food prices, the middle-class squeeze, high gas prices, rising income inequality, etc. etc. How bad can things really be for the average person when you can get a double cheeseburger or a McChicken sandwich at McDonald's for $1, and can buy any item of clothing at Steve and Barry's for $8.98 or less?
See previous CD post here on Steve and Barry's.
11 Comments:
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It's not about how the economy actually is, it's about how people feel about it (or, in my opinion, can be made to feel about it). Just ask Jack Krugman.
Corn - $0.11/lb
Box of Corn Flakes - $4.00
Chicken Breast - $5.00/lb
whole chicken - $1.00/lb
Cost of wheat in a loaf of bread - $0.18
Cost of plastic packaging - traditionally more than the cost of the wheat.
Coca cola, potato chips, gummy bears - Inform your spouse that these aren't food; and the kids shouldn't be eating them.
Rufus, I haven't been food shopping lately, but I really want to know where to buy $0.11/lb corn. Obesity and poverty are correlated. Poor people take the cheapest calories available to them.
Besides, I thought food was stripped out of core inflation, anyways.
I have some Steve and Barry's clothing, a UMich T-shirt. It's decent but not great quality. I feel as though it's akin to Wal-Mart, though, in that the pricing benefit it offers is offset by the loss in domestic production.
Yes, it keeps prices down, but is it really overall a better situation for the economy?
"Yes, it keeps prices down, but is it really overall a better situation for the economy?" - Previous Commenter
----------------------
Yes, it IS better overall for the economy.
- Consumers get staples at lower prices
- Day-to-day living costs are reduced
- Food as a %-age of income is lowered
- Higher-End retailers are forced to lower margins on products
- Innovations are created when people have limited resources, not infinite resources
- Governments lower taxes on individuals
Matt, the $0.11 is from futures prices ($6.00/bu divided by 56 pounds per bushel.)
However, if you really want to buy some corn, "right now," Go Here.
$5.75/bu.
Closer to a dime, I guess.
>get a double cheeseburger or a McChicken sandwich at McDonald's for $1
>Corn - $0.11/lb
the price makes sense when one notes that everything cheap at McD's is ultimately made of corn.
Jobs are a cost, ship them out - we want wealth! Less expensive goods make us wealthier, we can purchase more for less.
As I have said before, people confuse the "economy" with their own personal situation. Lower wage earners are having a tough time right now because gas and food are higher than normal and they don't have as much discretionary income. The economy, writ large, is doing pretty well. I keep hearing (from Bernanky, for example) that jobs are soft. Sheesh - 5% unemployment is now soft! Most of the world would kill for that.
Are we so sucessful we are a bunch of cry babies? Yes - and we should be! We have the right to expect better, and we would be getting it if we had less gov't regulation, less gov't taxes on corps and individuals, and less . . ., well, government!
> gummy bears - Inform your spouse that these aren't food
Speak for yourself. Gummy Bears are an essential part of the "Emotional Health" food group.
:o)
.
> Jobs are a cost, ship them out - we want wealth!
Marko. You're an idiot. This first sentence proves it.
I won't generally justify that, pretty much anyone who actually reads, rather than swallowing the Nightly News pablum knows this.
However:
> Lower wage earners are having a tough time right now because gas and food are higher than normal and they don't have as much discretionary income.
The majority of lower wage earners in this country are still making twice what "lower wage earners" were making just 15 years ago.
Per-capita personal income has almost doubled in the last 15 years, from about $20,000 in March of 1993 to almost $40,000 in March of 2008
With the median family income in April (according to this blog) was $60,185. People making half that (i.e., 30k) are *not* suffering overmuch, unless they've been managing their finances PARTICULARLY badly... and pardon me if I break out the world's smallest violin to play a heartfelt "Awwwww" just for them.
Stop drinking the KoolAid.
Very few people in this country are "suffering" just because they can't afford to buy a new SUV this year.
Even a crappy-ass car that gets 1/3rd the gas mileage of the most efficient cars will only spend about two grand more on gas this year than the owner of that highly efficient car, assuming they're driving anywhere in the standard range of 12k miles per year. And if they bought that crappy-ass car assuming that gas prices would be eternally low, then that's their mistake. Again, let me break out my teensy tiny violin.
Note: my car gets 16/23 mpg. Do I like higher gas prices? No. Am I whining about it? Hell, No
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121562423538939709.html
Steve & Barry's Files for Chapter 11,
Cites Liquidity Squeeze, Economy
By KEVIN KINGSBURY
WSJ, July 10, 2008
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