OH NOES!1! The rationing has begun!

[kitkat65]

Quilted Northern toilet paper is now 3/8" less wide than the Meijer generic.

Pretty sneaky, huh?

[seabeyond]

1. every product in last six months have shrunk and increased in price ro sat on price

every friggin product. it has been amazing last couple months

[kitkat65]

2. Yup! Generic toasted oats went from 15 oz. to 14 oz. - same cost. n/t

[happyslug]

3. Happened in the 1970s, packages slowly downsized

And then after a while, you saw a huge price increase as it went back to the original size. For example the Nickel candy bar slowly became smaller, then the original came back as the Dime candy bar (Yes, I am dating my self. I even remember a store that sold penny candy). This repeated with the Dime to the Quarter and then under Reagan from the Quarter to the 50 cent bar (Then the price just slowly went up for under Reagan inflation was low by 1970s standards but still extremely high by post WWII standards).

[kitkat65]

9. I really miss penny candy!

I still get a little thrill when I see a tiny little brown bag - brings back so many sweet memories. My dentist made have made a small fortune off me.

[happyslug]

14. I am dating myself by admitting I knew ONE store that sold penny candy.

The other stores only had nickel candy bars by the late 1960s. Penny Candy was almost a thing of the past. One small store sold candy by the penny, those little bite size candy pieces which even as I child I did not view as anywhere near full size. My older siblings remember some other penny candy, but even by the mid 1960s such candy was slowly dieing. So quite dating yourself, just say all you remember is 50 cent candy bars and everyone will still think you 39 and holding.

Yes, I remember other prices from the 1960s, 25 cents bus ride tickets (plus 10 cents for a transfer, I had to switch buses to get where I had to go). Coca Cola from a machine for a dime (Again only one machine, and it dispersed glass bottles not cans). What about returning empty GLASS bottles (And ever so often getting a case of Coke with a Pepsi Bottle in it, with a Coke Crown and filled with Coke)?

One of the "biggest" thing I remember was the introduction of the original GLASS non-returnable Two Liter Coke Bottles. What I remember about them was every so often one would break do to the pressure inside the bottle. This would occur when such bottles were stored in sunlight (one of the small stores I went to in the 1970s kept their Coke bottles in the front Corner where the sun hit the bottles through the front window). Those Glass non-returnable two liter bottles would just shatter every so often. The Store owner would have to clean up the resulting mess. No one was ever hurt, but it speed up the replacement of Glass by Plastic by the early 1980s.

As I age, it is NOT the big things that I notice that has changed, but the small things, like Plastic for Glass, the use of Credit Cards to buy things instead of cash, The growing price of Candy and other items, etc. In the 1970s the Garbage men picked up the Garbage from the REAR of your home, you did NOT have to take it to the curb (And in Pittsburgh carried the garbage in huge burlap sacks NOT just throwing plastic bags into the back of the Truck). My Parents kept their garbage in 40 gallon cans that looked like oil drums (And may have been for all I know) NOT the plastic cans we use today.

The big things people make a big deal about are accepted quickly (often before there are even done, for example the people who moved from the Downtown to the Suburban malls even before the Malls were finished). Yes, I do miss the big Downtown Departments Stores, all had many more items then their successors in today's malls but you had to take a streetcar or bus to get to them instead of driving. In Pittsburgh Kauffman's was the Big Downtown Store (it is now Macy's in Pittsburgh). Today the Downtown store is a shadow of its former self in the 1970s. I remember when it had THREE bargain basements floors not just one AND the wooden escalators at the top of the store actually lead to additional areas to shop not just offices. I miss that store, as while as Gimbel's but hopefully things are changing for the better.

[WePurrsevere]

10. Yup, I call it inflation by deflation...

We get less at the same or higher price so we have to buy more to get the same amount as before.

Sadly it's something that doesn't seem to be picked up by the gov and therefore COLAs aren't affected by it.

[seabeyond]

12. and wages stay the same or shrink. nt

[happyslug]

16. Which is UNLIKE the 1970s

In the 1970s if you were in the working class your wages kept up with inflation. If you were in a Union the Union negotiated a contract which increased wages based on the inflation rate. Companies trying to avoid unionization did the same (To give employees one less reasons to join a union). Lawyers, Accountants and other Professionals lost income in the 1970s, but the lower half (i.e. those below Median income) did not (Through Inflation did hurt those on minimum wage, but Congress kept increasing it throughout the 1970s).

In many ways the inflation of the 1970s is unlike the inflation of today. In the 1970s once inflation set in (Do to economic pressure of fighting the Vietnam War, which finally forced Nixon to drop the Gold Standard in 1970 rather then increase taxes OR withdraw from Vietnam) unions were strong enough to keep their members wages at least equal to inflation. As the Vietnam war deescalated in the early 1970s, inflation increased (Also pushed by the increase in oil between 1969 and the 1973 embargo, a slow but steady rise from about 25 cents a gallon in the mid 1960s to 35 cents a gallon by the early 1970s then to 80 cents a gallon during and after the oil embargo). In many ways the unions protected their members but by that act kept inflation going. Higher wages lead to higher prices which lead to higher wages. Notice the start of this cycle was the Vietnam War spending, it was assisted by the increase in oil prices. Both the oil price and Vietnam War Spending would have worked they way through the economy relatively quickly except the unions refused to take the fall (And neither did business nor anyone else) thus inflation slowly took off and kept up till Reagan decided to break the unions in the early 1980s (With Patco AND the collapse of the Steel Industry). Since Reagan the Unions have had minimal affect on the inflation rates. Most Cost of Living increases died out in the early 1980s (Along with Patco and much of the Steel Industry) so the inflation since the 1980s has been driven slowly by Government spending deficients (Remember it was Clinton who Balanced the Budget, the First Balanced Budget since 1969, which had been authored by President Lyndon B. Johnson using a temporary income tax increase which Nixon refused to renew in his first budget in 1970).

My point is, unlike the 1970s, the working class pay increase is NOT a driving force in today's inflation (and in the 1970s it was at best #3 behind the deficient spending to fight Vietnam AND the oil price increases of the 1970s). To correct this economy wages have to go up, but the system today and since the early 1980s is geared to prevent working class people from pushing for wage increases. Until that is reversed we are in for hard times which will make the 1970s look like a time of peace and prosperity.

[seabeyond]

19. this is what i keep coming back to. and i think here i am stupid me sittin in the panhandle of texa

and if i can see what we are doing with wage and less than wage, how it will help to not help our economy, why the hell dont the smart people see it.

[WePurrsevere]

17. Exactly! n/t

[eleny]

4. Can't a girl get a decent wipe in this country anymore?

[spartan61]

6. It will be no longer, "Can you spare a square?"

We will have to ask, "Can you spare several squares?"

[pipi_k]

5. Well I don't know about anyone else, but...

I don't usually get that close to the edges anyway...


:7

[kitkat65]

8. Well, if this keeps up, you're going to have to!

:P

[pipi_k]

11. Well, as long as it's soft enough...

Are public restrooms equipped any more with that vile stuff in the little tiny dispensers?

You know...the "paper" is like a cross between newsprint and sandpaper and it's about 3 x 4 inches

We used to have it in school. And someone would try to get more than one piece out and a whole wad of it would drop to the floor and fly all over the place unless it was weighed down by pee puddles.


Oh, the things we had to suffer!

[sufrommich]

7. It always starts with the toilet paper. Molon labe, people! nt

[Ozymanithrax]

13. Not new and not just six months...

During the oil spike, yogurt went from 8 to 6 ounce cups, all cereals lost 3 to 4 ounces and a lot of produces went to smaller size, while keeping their boxes the same size. They never went back

[Javaman]

15. yet, ironically, republicans have become even bigger asses by 1/3!

:rofl:

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Oh, goody. Now the teabaggers have an EXCUSE not to wipe their fat asses, in protest.

Icky.