Crane's Corner: 7-7-21 Gas, Groceries and Gamesmanship

Crane's Corner

During the year of sheltering, hoarding and putting a lot of things off, I worked entirely from home--unlike my wife---a medical professional who had to be in the office or in some cases on-call at a patients home.

I wasn’t Mrs. Doubtfire, but the domestic stuff---grocery shopping, strategic TP and Paper Towel offensives, some cooking and light cleaning fell to the guy who stayed home. For the most part we did fine--and over the past year, I’ve developed a pretty good idea of what things cost then--what they cost now..and how the folks who keep us supplied are gaming us. I don’t mean that to be critical---business people do what they have to do to stay in business. But so many of us were away from restaurants for weeks or months at a time, we might not have noticed how prices were raised. Even at your favorite casual joint, a couple of burgers, a round of drinks and a tip will set you back 50 or 60 bucks. Of course you could stay home---but grocery beef prices are insane, chicken’s getting up there and pork, the other white meat is starting to be priced like it’s extra fine...not basic swine. Bacon---the other day it was 8 bucks a pound.

In California we’re blessed with abundant produce and the prices are fair but higher prices for basic commodities, flour, sugar and the like are already higher---You may not see it yet, but you will. Some of the bigger grocery chains saw the wholesale inflation coming. They've loaded up the warehouses, but when those stocks are depleted, we’ll be slammed by bread, cookie and bakery prices.

Remember those 5 thousand Amazon boxes that brought you this and the other thing last year/ Well, there’s now a cardboard shortage---you can find it..but it’s more expensive. Which means---the boxes will still roll out of Amazon vans..and technically the shipping will still be free---Jeff Bezos and his Amazon army will just raise the price of what goes into the boxes.

Now, you want to go frugal---skip dining out---cut down on beef bacon and stick to the fruits and veggies---and keep your fingers off the Amazon Ap---fine---but they’ll get ya at the gas pump. A gallon’s north of four bucks in California--that's a whopping 40 percent more than it was last July. We will feel the pain every time we fill up---but higher fuel is being paid by the trucks that bring us everything--and we’ll get the trickle down sucker punch. Finally--if all this makes you want to getaway...The airlines were paying less than a buck a gallon for jet fuel last summer--today--it’s 1.75. Last time prices for jet fuel went up so fast--2008 when the airlines evened things out by charging for everything on board but a Flight Attendant's smile.

It’s a procession to recession. No longer do we worry about outliving our money. I’ll be happy if I have any left by Labor Day.