Is the cost of anything not going up?

[Brian Elfert]

Inflation may be less, but everything still seems to be going up in price. Verizon just increased my cell phone bill by $5 per month. My monthly bills have gone up by at least $200 per month since 2020. That doesn't include the high cost of food. It doesn't help that my wages are 15% less than they would be if they had kept up with inflation since I started in 2001. I track the price of Frito-Lay party size snacks at Walmart. The price just jumped up almost 10% more in the past couple of weeks. They had been under $4 at beginning of 2020 and the price is just about $6 now.

I am not sure how I am going to buy a replacement vehicle in three to five years. My vehicle has been paid off since early 2020. A new minivan has doubled in price since I bought mine in 2016. Part of the increase is due to no more stripped down base models like mine. I would like electric, but the VW electric minivan looks like it will be over $50,000 and not eligible for federal tax credits. In Minnesota rust is the biggest reason to need a replacement vehicle. My 2016 Grand Caravan is starting to have rust on the back side of the liftgate which eventually will eat through the liftgate. My parents had a 2000 Grand Caravan that they had to send to the scrapyard at 133,000 miles as the top of the strut towers were dangerously rusted. I am already at 96,000 miles and I feel certain my vehicle will make it past 133,000 miles.

[Jim Becker]

There are many things at play here...but one of the largest factors is supplier consolidation: fewer companies hold the whole market, making for less competition. And then there is Wall Street with it's short term expectations for profit increases. Prices are certainly up; but corporate profits are "to the moon". Did Frito-Lay need to raise the price of that snack package or did they do it because they could? And be sure you are also looking at the amount of product in the package. "Shrinkflation" is also at play...smaller quantities for the same money, followed by...a price increase when you least expect it.

----

BTW, folks...don't let politics get into this thread. Not permitted.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I hear you about things getting more expensive. 2x4x8s at Lowes are $3.58 now up here, so that's still pretty low.

[Edward Weber]

Not trying to pile on but you did just mention three things that most people in society need these days. Food, Phone and Car.
These prices can be raised by the corporations, knowing full well that people will "find a way" and pay for them somehow. This is non discretionary spending, when it goes up for whatever reason, we feel it more.

[Brian Elfert]

On top of this, my brother literally moments ago told me he is looking at dropping his Verizon family plan and going with Comcast Mobile instead. I only pay $45 a month as a member of his family plan. My cost for a single phone with Verizon will more than double as there is no way I will go with Comcast Mobile for a variety of reasons. If a Verizon tower is overloaded MVNOs like Comcast Mobile get lower speeds and I suppose could go all the way to no service if super overloaded. I believe there is also no roaming and no extended access with an MVNO on Verizon. I use extended access for a trip to the Nevada desert every year.

I won't switch to another carrier like T-Mobile because many at work have T-Mobile and report dead spots all over rural areas that Verizon covers just fine.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have a TracFone plan that costs $200 a year, and mostly works pretty well. Occasionally I lose service, but not too often. I'm out in a very rural area, so that may also be a factor.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a TracFone plan that costs $200 a year, and mostly works pretty well. Occasionally I lose service, but not too often. I'm out in a very rural area, so that may also be a factor.

Sorry, but I would go without a phone before I spent a penny with Tracfone. Nothing against anyone who is happy with Tracfone. I just won't use it myself.

[Brian Elfert]

I am NOT looking at moving away from Verizon. If my brother changes to Xfinity Mobile I will just have to figure out what to cut out of my budget to pay the extra $50 to $60 a month for phone service. People with only one line really get raked over the coals by Verizon. If I leave Verizon I would also have to pay the remaining $600 on my iPhone 14. I was going to pay up front, but the $200 promotional credit is only valid if you pay the phone off over three years with no interest.

[Brian Runau]

I agree with Jim's comments. When I retired in 2019 I was a Purchasing Manager for a mechanical industrial products company and most of my work was with suppliers based in China. Cost us @ $5000 to move a 20ft container from port to port, that included all the duties and transportation costs, delivered to the warehouse door, etc... During the pandemic I heard from many this cost had quadrupled or more. Companies had to pass this on, but the modus operandi is to keep the market price and put any increased profits from costs going down to the company vs passing this on in unit pricing.

Paying CEO's based on profit and share price has driven cost cutting, in the extreme, and my personal opinion is they are running out of ways to drive the stock price up to increase their compensation so, price increases and less competition. This is why they use cash to buy back stock, drives the stock price up, bigger share price for those that hold the shares. Only way prices come down is if we, the consumer, don't purchase items going forward. I know we all need food, but we can switch to vegetables etc... Tyson and many manufacturers are doing what the oil companies have done for years, supply and demand. Tyson is closing plants, reducing supply, which drives prices up.

We don't eat as much red meat as we used to, healthier for us not to, so fish and chicken and other good healthy sources of protein. I am type II diabetic and chips, pretzels are a no no, apples it is.

Brian

[Curt Harms]

On top of this, my brother literally moments ago told me he is looking at dropping his Verizon family plan and going with Comcast Mobile instead. I only pay $45 a month as a member of his family plan. My cost for a single phone with Verizon will more than double as there is no way I will go with Comcast Mobile for a variety of reasons. If a Verizon tower is overloaded MVNOs like Comcast Mobile get lower speeds and I suppose could go all the way to no service if super overloaded. I believe there is also no roaming and no extended access with an MVNO on Verizon. I use extended access for a trip to the Nevada desert every year.

I won't switch to another carrier like T-Mobile because many at work have T-Mobile and report dead spots all over rural areas that Verizon covers just fine.

Little O.T. but I believe Comcast is building their own mobile infrastructure for at least part of their system that is now using Verizon. Comcast is already providing quite a bit of network capacity to other mobile system providers so they're adding cell site hardware.

[Jim Becker]

Little O.T. but I believe Comcast is building their own mobile infrastructure for at least part of their system that is now using Verizon. Comcast is already providing quite a bit of network capacity to other mobile system providers so they're adding cell site hardware.

They may decide to do that in more urban areas where they have fiber infrastructure, but just like ATT, VZ and TMo, a lot of the wireless infrastructure "out there" is owned and operated by specialty companies like Crown Castle. It's a "yuge" investment to put discrete hardware for each carrier, so they all lease from the specialty companies when it makes sense to do so. Right here in Doylestown where you and I live, all those 5G wide band nodes throughout town are owned by Crown Castle and are connected physically to VZ's fiber. VZ leases access to the nodes (they got first dibs) but the contract allows for other carriers to lease access if they prefer. (I do not know if any are doing that currently)

[Doug Garson]

Not trying to pile on but you did just mention three things that most people in society need these days. Food, Phone and Car.
These prices can be raised by the corporations, knowing full well that people will "find a way" and pay for them somehow. This is non discretionary spending, when it goes up for whatever reason, we feel it more.

Not sure " Frito-Lay party size snacks " would be considered non discretionary. I agree though that much of current inflation is corporate greed not increased costs of production and delivery.

[Brian Elfert]

Not sure " Frito-Lay party size snacks " would be considered non discretionary. I agree though that much of current inflation is corporate greed not increased costs of production and delivery.

The Frito-Lay party size snacks is just an example of something I have monitored the price of over time, and which has gone up at twice the rate of overall grocery inflation.

My employer is certainly facing higher prices for production and delivery. The input costs of most everything has gone up. Diesel fuel for deliveries is still high, although the price is down from recent highs. The price of new heavy duty straight trucks to replace worn out trucks has gone through the roof. Even parts to keep old trucks on the road longer have gone up significantly. Labor costs are higher as employees demand higher wages due to inflation. One piece of software critical to operation of the company more than doubled in annual cost. Software support and maintenance costs have been going up by 10% to 20% per year on much of the software we use. One raw material that is my employer's second highest cost behind labor has gone up significantly due to the plant closest to us closing and transportation costs being much higher now due to longer distance from the next closest plant.

[Malcolm McLeod]

…corporate greed…

From Intuit/CreditKarma, but lots of other sources:

In a Nutshell
Causes of inflation generally break down into two categories, demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. As for current inflation, the main contributing factors include the increase in the money supply, supply chain disruption and fossil fuel policies.

No mention of greed, but we can all find our own confirmation bias - if we look hard enough.

[Lee DeRaud]

No mention of greed, but we can all find our own confirmation bias - if we look hard enough.

Cost-push inflation tends to have a ratcheting effect baked in unless there is active pressure to reduce prices when/if costs go back down. Whether you call it "greed" or "maximization of shareholder value" is in the eye of the beholder.

There's also the effect of timing on volatile cost components. My favorite example is how gasoline prices go up almost immediately when the price of crude goes up (i.e. at the front end of a rather long supply chain) and only go down when the cost of refined/delivered gas goes down (i.e. at the back end of the same supply chain). There is a lot of profit under the curve in that time lag...again, you don't have to call it greed if you don't want to, but it certainly exists.