Obviously prices are higher. Have you noticed, though, that sizes are shrinking?
I love chocolate, paricularly Dove milk chocolate. A bag of it was $5.87! AND, when I pulled it off the shelf the bag was puffed up with air, and there were 10 pieces inside. I remember beingable to buy a bag for $3.50 and there were 26 pieces in it.
I put it back. I just couldn't do it.
Now, chocolate is a dumb example, I realize. The same thing is happening to everything. Here's the good news: smaller packages means you can store them more easily as you stock up before prices go hyper-crazy. And, another positive thing: it might be a good time to break some bad habits (such as not buying the chocolate, for me).
One last thought: the smaller volumes is a sneaky tactic, and many people will not understand the double-whammy and will go through their grocery money way too fast. Credit card debt will spike, but so will crime. Keep extra vigilant.
A personal favorite is recently the little plastic spout on cartons of half and half shrank to half the length/height. So a) the lid is harder to get off/on and b) pouring is less than half as neat. Some asshole bastard apparently figured out they could save $0.025 per unit resulting in a stock uptick of $0.00125 per share or some shit.
RTTB. (Race to the Bottom, as me and a friend lament basically constantly.)
Ahhh nice catch, I thought I noticed something similar on store brand heavy cream recently!
It happened on liquid laundry detergent too. I switched brands for the time being but I expect unless one of them catches on* the trend to continue.
*I noticed (IIRC) Heinz boasting that their worcestershire sauce is still a larger bottle than L&P - well, yeah, because however they do it no-one gets close to the real thing - I'd throw away cases of their crap before using it anywhere near food. But I digress....
Frenches worchestershire sauce for my beef jerky
gave up worstershire just last week as it has soy in it. husband won't touch the stuff. more money saved i guess.