I usually write about urbanism, but sometimes other things too. This is one of those posts.

One thing I like about visiting my parents in New Jersey is the lower grocery costs. Not that I’m doing that much shopping or cooking up there—I do that at home down here in Virginia—but sometimes I’ll bring home some deli-sliced salami or a couple of steaks or something else from Shop-Rite.

My mother made braciole one night—this, if you’re not familiar with it. It’s funny, there are enough Italian-Americans there that Shop-Rite actually sells the top round cutlets used for the dish as “for braciole.” Most supermarkets down here don’t even sell top round cutlets, and none of them, to my knowledge, use the term braciole.

One of the ingredients in braciole is sliced deli ham, and when I looked at the bag for the ham in my parents’ fridge, I was shocked by the price: $3.99 per pound. Shop-Rite has always had very cheap ham (either Glen Rock or Smithfield, most of the time) as well as a rotating cast of very cheap salamis. They used to be $2.99 and are now maybe $4.99—Carando, Fiorucci, Hormel San Remo.

I haven’t bought deli meat at Shop-Rite in ages, and when I visit my parents and they have some it’s usually rewrapped in plastic wrap. All of this is to say I had no idea they were still selling this stuff, after COVID and inflation, for those low prices. When our local supermarket puts the aging pre-sliced deli ham on sale, it’s still $6.99. The cheapest salami you can buy outside of sales is maybe $7.99, usually $9.99.

I said to my wife, as I rolled up a slice of ham for each of us, gee, if ham cost this little at home, I’d buy it a lot. (Not that I need more salty, processed meat; those high prices probably keep me healthier.) She said, if you want it buy it, don’t worry about a few dollars.

That made me think. The funny thing is, it’s not like I buy half as much ham if it’s $7.99 versus $3.99. If it’s $7.99, I just don’t want it at that price. It’s not twice as hard to justify the expense; it just stops feeling like I can justify it at all. It’s similar with restaurant prices going up, at the same time that portions and/or quality are in many cases going down. I don’t feel like eating out less often, I just lose interest in it. My beloved buffets used to be a great deal at, like, $11.95 for dinner. Now, at $16.95, not so much. I just don’t want a $16.95 buffet, just like I don’t want $7.99 a pound ham.

I wonder how common my feeling is, versus a more mathematical approach where you just have a grocery budget and buy whatever you want within the budget. It’s interesting how inflation changes your attitudes about buying stuff. And inflation has really begun to hit.

Wegmans raised the price of chicken breast recently from $1.99 per pound to $2.99 per pound—a 50 percent increase all at once. Canola oil at Trader Joe’s was $2.49 once upon a time, now $3.99. The price of most stuff has crept up, and some products have just disappeared. The actual additional dollar amount it costs me to buy groceries really isn’t that much. There are probably lots of budgeting choices I could make that would have more impact. Yet it feels like a lot, and each little price increase means more and products I just don’t want to buy.

This, I guess, is how recessions can become self-fulfilling prophecies. But I dislike the idea that I have to spend for the common good, and the corollary that being thrifty is a kind of selfishness.

But anyway, I’m going to bring home some of that ham next time I’m in New Jersey.

How is inflation hitting you, in whatever sector or area of retail? Have you ever thought about the psychology of budgets and prices much? I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

Related Reading:

The Spider Skeleton

About That Avocado Toast

The Great Unsettledness

Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive: over 400 posts and growing. And you’ll help ensure more material like this!

Share