I’ve come to assume whatever I buy will fall into the nebulous “more expensive than I expected” range.
by Jim Geraghty
Washington Post
My sense of what things ought to cost is stuck in pre-pandemic 2019 or so. I suspect I’m far from alone. This means every time I make our family’s midweek run to Trader Joe’s — breaking news, two teenagers eat a lot — the bag of groceries isn’t just going to cost more than I want it to. There’s a good chance it’s also going to cost a few bucks more than I remember it being last time.
Or will it? Given the nation’s inflation bender over the past few years, I’ve come to assume the prices for just about everything are going to be some nebulous “more expensive than I expected” range. Which means I no longer have a good sense of what’s a new post-high-inflation normal cost and what’s genuinely overpriced.