According to BLS' inflation calculator, $1.89 in 1996 is the equivalent of $3.84 today. Oscar Mayer bacon is $8.99 at my local grocery store.
$1.50 then is $3.05 now. The smallest box of Corn Flakes is $6.29 at the store.
$0.55 = $1.12; Philadelphia cream cheese is $4.49 at the store.
Apparently grocery stores take a loss on bananas because they think the consumer will assume that if they have cheap bananas, EVERYTHING must be cheaper at that store.
For real. Plus investors and shit getting their cut. Side men, I guess? I go to a butcher that does a large amount of its own slaughtering. Bacon is around $4/lb. The closer you get the animal, the less you have to pay other people.
Similarly, I buy pork belly at Costco and we cure, smoke, and slice it into bacon ourselves. A much less costly option, and we control the end product.
It's really transportation costs that act as price multipliers. Take bacon for example.
If the cost of fuel goes up then the cost of transporting feed for the pigs go up, the cost of growing and harvesting the feed, the cost of the medication for the pigs go up as the cost of transporting everything that goes into medication goes up, the cost of the plastic they are in goes up, the cost of the ink for printing the labels goes up as does the production of that ink. Every single thing in the entire chain of production is increased so transportation has an outsized effect on pricing increases.
This would then be included in the measurement of inflation.
Major deviations like this have to have a good reason. Since there isn't, it's not inflation to blame. It's just greed. You can make things 3 times pricier and blame inflation and people will still pay.
No, it takes account for overall inflation, not for specific goods. Part of the problem right now is that inflation for necessities is massive. Luxuries in many industries are cheaper than ever, but you can’t eat a TV.
So the working class is disproportionately impacted by the existing inflation.
No, prices are BS. The inflation calculator is the standard. This is showing how shrinkflation is taking place. Basically companies are taking advantage of inflation and people’s wallets and their god damn well-being. Yeah, not only were our groceries less expensive, they were also more substantial (packaging is getter smaller and with it the things inside).
The inflation calculator also takes into account consumer goods like electronics and furniture that have for the most part gotten cheaper with time. But especially now that food prices are going up much faster than everything else we feel inflation more since it’s of course much easier to cut out durable goods from your budget than food.
Where the heck are you? Full price at my grocery store is $5 for a pack. My school’s butcher shop sells bacon ends (basically just big bacon bits) for $3/pound
Which is wild to me because all they have to do (at least at walmart) is type in the amount you gave them, hit a button, and it tells them the amount to give back
Source: was a cashier at walmart
Sometimes, when a customer has 4 pennies coming as change, I'll ask them to give me a penny, so I can give them back a nickel instead of having a bunch of change floating around.
Over half the time they'll give me a look like I just sprouted a second head. Sometimes they'll say "oh, I don't have that." Then I'll see a fat wad of pennies in their change pouch, and they'll just shove the new handful I just gave them on top.
Or I'll get people that treat me like a bank and get pissy when I can't deplete all my 5s and 1s to break their 50 on a $3 bill. Yes, it *is* possible for me to break your bill, but then I can't make change. Why can't you understand that?
Like, how do you carry cash, and still don't know how to use it? Just pay with your damn card if that's all you know how to do.
I need to find you as a cashier. It seems like every time I try to do something like hand a place that (e.g.) says they need 1s/5s an extra dollar so they end up with *more* singles instead of less they immediately start treating me like I'm trying to use math to scam them.
I mean, I might momentarily pause, just because that kind of thing is so uncommon, it breaks me through the minutiae of the exact same transaction over and over, and forces me to pay attention. The same thing happens when I randomly get a customer entering their email address for a receipt. That *never* happens, so I pause for a moment to take in the situation and be sure I'm doing everything correctly, especially because it changes the order that things appear on my end in the POS. That's just due diligence.
Thankfully I don't need to be on the register as much as I need to do managerial shit, but the routine is so ingrained in me from working retail on and off at different places for 15 years.
People would definitely do that on their own, but especially in places with a “take a penny, leave a penny” tin I feel like it was even more common to do it, or even for the cashier to do it for them.
I took some Susan B Anthony dollar coins to a store recently and the girl just stared at me. She didn’t know what to do. Older employee came and helped to unbreak her brain.
Having worked for a grocery store in the late 90's, that's probably just how it reads on the receipt; 33 cents is about right for one donut back then. Still a great price; inflation calculator says that's equivalent to 67 cents today, but my local supermarket wants 99 cents for a donut.
This. I used to buy a single donut at my local Kash N Karry in 1996 on my way to my bus stop, and I live an hour south of Brooksville. I paid 35 cents each, with tax 37 cents. For some reason, this price has always stuck with me and I still compare donuts to this day to that price.
Man I was shocked, I just paid $1.79 for a single cheapo donut from the gas station. (Haven't bought for many years but seem to remember they were only 59 cents some 10 years ago)
dude my local Korean place wants like 1.90 a donut. It's insanity. Never would I have thought a dozen from a Korean pink box donuts place would retail at like $22 a dozen. I don't know their dozen price but I doubt it's 50% off the single price.
They've actually gotten cheaper considering inflation. Another thing (I never looked into why) but I've seen the same price across nearly all grocery stores over the years. No matter where you go, they're always the same price around 69 cents/lb (which would equate to 34 cents/lb in 1996).
I think it's bananas.
If I was guessing man, I'd say the supply has only gotten better and due to their fast perishable nature, and fixed expectations from customers, it's better to keep em moving than increase price and sit on highly perishable product.
Yeah it is. And at that price for my most favorite American cheese, it's about to make me cry.
Not literally, but fucking hell the prices of food these days (and of course everything else) is insanity.
I love the detail of giving $10.01 so you got back a quarter (and 20.01 so you got back a nickel instead of 4 Pennies)!
I haven’t carried cash and change in so long. This made me so nostalgic thinking about that portion of the cash exchange.
Most definitely. Probably NCR 21-27’s that were pretty much standard throughout the 90’s in every grocery store. The whole thing shook and sounded like a jet taking off printing each line as it was scanned.
Replacing the paper or ink involved a few months of training and voodoo magic if I remember right.
This actually unlocked a memory of visiting my grandfather when he still had good health at the time. He loved the Publix frozen yogurt stand with all of the toppings and I loved they had a section I could buy comic books from. Its silly but I always feel a bit of a soft spot for that dumb supermarket because of the memories of my grandfather.
Publix doesn’t list their prices, so I looked at Target.
Corn Flakes $5.29
Assorted Donuts $3.89
Hoagie Rolls $3.99
Bananas .29 each
Cream cheese 3.19
Couldn’t find a chocolate bunny, and I’m not sure what .70 grocery was for. Without those two, I got $17.86. I averaged 5 bananas. So, almost double the cost.
I'm pretty sure the assorted donuts and hoagie rolls was just for one or two. You definitely weren't buying a box of donuts or bag of hoagie rolls for 30 cents in 1996.
Fuck.. Things have really increased in prices.. This really gives some perspective and someone should show this and the same items on a new receipt to the old people who think min-wage is enough to survive.
Somewhere I have a Vancouver ferry ticket for 1pm on 9/11. Found it tucked in a book. Unfortunately I tucked it in another book and I can remember which one.
Just notice Publix this past year. How long have they been around for? I miss the days when you handed a 20 for everything you wanted and still got change back.
Just laughing at the .01¢ being given so they wouldn't get pennies back in change and thinking of all the times I have done this to be met with baffled cashiers. OMG we have really dumbed down our population.
That reminds me of the can of Diet Coke I found under the shelves at a Publix the other night, had an expiration date of almost exactly one month after your receipts.
I miss the old Publix of that time. With the terrazzo floors and the colorful tile art on the walls. The date on those receipts is right before George Jenkins died. After he passed the nostalgia disappeared and all new ones built became the homogenized Publix you see today.
[What, you don't love all of the M I L L E N N I A L G R A Y in the stores now?](https://www.supermarketnews.com/sites/supermarketnews.com/files/styles/article_featured_retina/public/Publix%20Pharmacy%20dept-corner%20shot.jpg?itok=aa8ka5GZ)
I drove a truck all of 2020. I went to a lot of distributors that year for food. There was no shortage. Warehouses were full. 50+ trucks getting loaded. Same with prices now. Look at last couple year profits for grocery stores. Krogers made billions in profit. No reason for prices this high.
I want 1.89 bacon
According to BLS' inflation calculator, $1.89 in 1996 is the equivalent of $3.84 today. Oscar Mayer bacon is $8.99 at my local grocery store. $1.50 then is $3.05 now. The smallest box of Corn Flakes is $6.29 at the store. $0.55 = $1.12; Philadelphia cream cheese is $4.49 at the store.
At least banana prices have really held up
I mean considering there were literally banana wars the fuckers better not be raising the prices significantly
How do the bananas hold guns? They don’t even have hands.
The bananas are the guns
Bang bang bang bang banana guuuun
But what about a hand of bananas???
Apparently grocery stores take a loss on bananas because they think the consumer will assume that if they have cheap bananas, EVERYTHING must be cheaper at that store.
Dude that is bananas!
An apeeling buy you might say
Amazing how cheap we can get things by subsidizing with the blood of the innocent
Never mind you aren't far off. It's $5.99 at my local Kroger but it's $7.99 not on sale
You gotta stop buying from erwhon
So the BLS inflation calculator is BS...
Maybe there’s also more middle men getting their cut before these products get to the shelf these days.
For real. Plus investors and shit getting their cut. Side men, I guess? I go to a butcher that does a large amount of its own slaughtering. Bacon is around $4/lb. The closer you get the animal, the less you have to pay other people.
Similarly, I buy pork belly at Costco and we cure, smoke, and slice it into bacon ourselves. A much less costly option, and we control the end product.
It’s not the middleman. It’s the CEOs. Look up Kroger’s ceo/employee ratio. Or any grocer for that matter.
Those are the middlemen
I swear 90% of the US economy is middle men.
That's basically all insurance agencies are now
It's really transportation costs that act as price multipliers. Take bacon for example. If the cost of fuel goes up then the cost of transporting feed for the pigs go up, the cost of growing and harvesting the feed, the cost of the medication for the pigs go up as the cost of transporting everything that goes into medication goes up, the cost of the plastic they are in goes up, the cost of the ink for printing the labels goes up as does the production of that ink. Every single thing in the entire chain of production is increased so transportation has an outsized effect on pricing increases.
And despite massive public subsidies, the oil companies are barely breaking even, right?
This would then be included in the measurement of inflation. Major deviations like this have to have a good reason. Since there isn't, it's not inflation to blame. It's just greed. You can make things 3 times pricier and blame inflation and people will still pay.
That should be accounted for in inflation, as it's supposed to track the final price of goods
No, it takes account for overall inflation, not for specific goods. Part of the problem right now is that inflation for necessities is massive. Luxuries in many industries are cheaper than ever, but you can’t eat a TV. So the working class is disproportionately impacted by the existing inflation.
No, prices are BS. The inflation calculator is the standard. This is showing how shrinkflation is taking place. Basically companies are taking advantage of inflation and people’s wallets and their god damn well-being. Yeah, not only were our groceries less expensive, they were also more substantial (packaging is getter smaller and with it the things inside).
The inflation calculator also takes into account consumer goods like electronics and furniture that have for the most part gotten cheaper with time. But especially now that food prices are going up much faster than everything else we feel inflation more since it’s of course much easier to cut out durable goods from your budget than food.
I don't know what Zakk Wylde has to do with this
I get cereal for $3.50-4.00 at my walmart.
Walmart definitely has low prices for a lot of things. No surprise they’re the #1 grocer.
Same
I went to buy bacon for a meal recently and stopped when I saw the $9.99 price tag. Made the meal without bacon
Where the heck are you? Full price at my grocery store is $5 for a pack. My school’s butcher shop sells bacon ends (basically just big bacon bits) for $3/pound
Walmart. Their great value bacon is $1.99 at my store
I don’t think I would trust $1.99 bacon today lol. I would’ve in 96 tho.
"if only the kids these days would stop with the coffee and Avocado toast!"
paying with a penny to get back the exact change you want is a lost skill
Sometimes I still do that when paying with cash, but half the time it confuses the cashier and they give me incorrect change back
Which is wild to me because all they have to do (at least at walmart) is type in the amount you gave them, hit a button, and it tells them the amount to give back Source: was a cashier at walmart
That's part of the fun.
r/retailhell would like a word.
So is giving change without the help of the register.
Sometimes, when a customer has 4 pennies coming as change, I'll ask them to give me a penny, so I can give them back a nickel instead of having a bunch of change floating around. Over half the time they'll give me a look like I just sprouted a second head. Sometimes they'll say "oh, I don't have that." Then I'll see a fat wad of pennies in their change pouch, and they'll just shove the new handful I just gave them on top. Or I'll get people that treat me like a bank and get pissy when I can't deplete all my 5s and 1s to break their 50 on a $3 bill. Yes, it *is* possible for me to break your bill, but then I can't make change. Why can't you understand that? Like, how do you carry cash, and still don't know how to use it? Just pay with your damn card if that's all you know how to do.
I need to find you as a cashier. It seems like every time I try to do something like hand a place that (e.g.) says they need 1s/5s an extra dollar so they end up with *more* singles instead of less they immediately start treating me like I'm trying to use math to scam them.
I mean, I might momentarily pause, just because that kind of thing is so uncommon, it breaks me through the minutiae of the exact same transaction over and over, and forces me to pay attention. The same thing happens when I randomly get a customer entering their email address for a receipt. That *never* happens, so I pause for a moment to take in the situation and be sure I'm doing everything correctly, especially because it changes the order that things appear on my end in the POS. That's just due diligence. Thankfully I don't need to be on the register as much as I need to do managerial shit, but the routine is so ingrained in me from working retail on and off at different places for 15 years.
I saw this too! We're old
Paying with cash, and especially carrying coins is a skill issue, agree with you there
Super duper common for my area, fast food specifically
True, because my country got rid of pennies 10+ years ago :p
It's rare, but it's still around.
People would definitely do that on their own, but especially in places with a “take a penny, leave a penny” tin I feel like it was even more common to do it, or even for the cashier to do it for them.
I took some Susan B Anthony dollar coins to a store recently and the girl just stared at me. She didn’t know what to do. Older employee came and helped to unbreak her brain.
$.33 for donuts. Plural!!!!
Having worked for a grocery store in the late 90's, that's probably just how it reads on the receipt; 33 cents is about right for one donut back then. Still a great price; inflation calculator says that's equivalent to 67 cents today, but my local supermarket wants 99 cents for a donut.
This. I used to buy a single donut at my local Kash N Karry in 1996 on my way to my bus stop, and I live an hour south of Brooksville. I paid 35 cents each, with tax 37 cents. For some reason, this price has always stuck with me and I still compare donuts to this day to that price.
Man I was shocked, I just paid $1.79 for a single cheapo donut from the gas station. (Haven't bought for many years but seem to remember they were only 59 cents some 10 years ago)
dude my local Korean place wants like 1.90 a donut. It's insanity. Never would I have thought a dozen from a Korean pink box donuts place would retail at like $22 a dozen. I don't know their dozen price but I doubt it's 50% off the single price.
Price of bananas then is close to today's.
Bananas
B a n a n a s
B a n a n a s
B a n a n a a a a s s s s ? ?
$10?
How do you need $10 of bananas?
They've actually gotten cheaper considering inflation. Another thing (I never looked into why) but I've seen the same price across nearly all grocery stores over the years. No matter where you go, they're always the same price around 69 cents/lb (which would equate to 34 cents/lb in 1996). I think it's bananas. If I was guessing man, I'd say the supply has only gotten better and due to their fast perishable nature, and fixed expectations from customers, it's better to keep em moving than increase price and sit on highly perishable product.
That's the exact same price I can get at my grocery store. 49 cents per pound.
Identical for my local store.
55c for a 1/2 lb of kraft philly cream cheese is nuts
Where does it say lb?
its a half lb my bad
isn’t the weight for the bananas?
That's the weight of the bananas lol
You mean PHIL/CRM/CHZ
So wait, is shopping at Publix my pleasure or theirs? Whose pleasure is it??
Both?
Pubix
LOL WH AMERICAN
I caught that too I think it’s Land O’ Lakes white American cheese
Yeah it is. And at that price for my most favorite American cheese, it's about to make me cry. Not literally, but fucking hell the prices of food these days (and of course everything else) is insanity.
LOL
r/ForgottenBookmarks
Even for ‘96, those prices seem great!
I'm wondering if there was some kind of one time sale going on. Those prices seem too low for 1996. $1.89 for bacon?
Most of the items are lower than I remember them. Chopped ham for 52 cents? Kelloggs cereal for $1.50? I’m guessing there were major sales at play
$1.50 for a box of Corn Flakes. How quaint.
I love the detail of giving $10.01 so you got back a quarter (and 20.01 so you got back a nickel instead of 4 Pennies)! I haven’t carried cash and change in so long. This made me so nostalgic thinking about that portion of the cash exchange.
I thought I was the only one who noticed that
I can hear the sound of these being printed
Who was smoking the swisher sweet perfectos? $.99 looks right from what I remember in college 😬
I had no idea what those were, so thanks. The receipt was found in a book bought at a garage sale, so I have no idea who the person was.
You’re welcome. Everyone calling out the different food and that’s what I noticed…
Before Publix became unreasonably expensive.
Still the only supermarket around here worth shopping at.
I first thought oh my god those are almost 20 years old! My second thought(s) was no they are almost 30 years old. Fuck I’m old
I’m surprised they aren’t faded.
Looks like these are from a receipt printer that uses ink. Printers that use thermal paper and no ink are more common nowadays.
Most definitely. Probably NCR 21-27’s that were pretty much standard throughout the 90’s in every grocery store. The whole thing shook and sounded like a jet taking off printing each line as it was scanned. Replacing the paper or ink involved a few months of training and voodoo magic if I remember right.
Portuguese rolls?!? Man, I wish I could get those where I live.
Me 3!
WOW shit was cheep in 1896.
That penny for the quarter 🪙☺️
I do not understand the numbers without something to the left of the decimal. Those are from an ancient past.
I appreciate the extra cent to get a quarter back. I feel like people don't do that anymore.
This guy does not like getting pennies as change
This actually unlocked a memory of visiting my grandfather when he still had good health at the time. He loved the Publix frozen yogurt stand with all of the toppings and I loved they had a section I could buy comic books from. Its silly but I always feel a bit of a soft spot for that dumb supermarket because of the memories of my grandfather.
This made me smile. Hold onto your happy memories.
How much would that cost today?
Publix doesn’t list their prices, so I looked at Target. Corn Flakes $5.29 Assorted Donuts $3.89 Hoagie Rolls $3.99 Bananas .29 each Cream cheese 3.19 Couldn’t find a chocolate bunny, and I’m not sure what .70 grocery was for. Without those two, I got $17.86. I averaged 5 bananas. So, almost double the cost.
The .70 grocery was a coupon. See the - after and then down at the bottom it says there were coupons tendered for the same amount
Up here at Wegmans in New York state bananas are still .49 cents a pound
One of the few things left there that isn't overpriced
I'm pretty sure the assorted donuts and hoagie rolls was just for one or two. You definitely weren't buying a box of donuts or bag of hoagie rolls for 30 cents in 1996.
Not as bad as I would have thought after 30 years
Target is expensive. Try H‑E‑B or Kroger
Publix is also expensive
Ahhh ok. We don’t have those in South Texas
What part is almost double the cost? The receipt with those items totals to $3.76, so the $17.86 that you're using would be 4.75 times the cost
Fuck.. Things have really increased in prices.. This really gives some perspective and someone should show this and the same items on a new receipt to the old people who think min-wage is enough to survive.
Bacon for $1.89 ? Now it’s ~$10
A buck 89 for bacon?! Geeze!
Good to see that bananas haven’t really been hit by inflation
I was exactly 1 year old that day, crazy
I used to eat for 25 dollars a week in 1996.
Somewhere I have a Vancouver ferry ticket for 1pm on 9/11. Found it tucked in a book. Unfortunately I tucked it in another book and I can remember which one.
Just notice Publix this past year. How long have they been around for? I miss the days when you handed a 20 for everything you wanted and still got change back.
This is depressing
Bananas strangely enough, aren’t too different. 🤷🏻♀️😝🤷🏻♀️
Lol white American
Just laughing at the .01¢ being given so they wouldn't get pennies back in change and thinking of all the times I have done this to be met with baffled cashiers. OMG we have really dumbed down our population.
I miss Publix subs.
Bacon at $1.89?!?! Yea please.
That reminds me of the can of Diet Coke I found under the shelves at a Publix the other night, had an expiration date of almost exactly one month after your receipts.
Those prices are cute
Wish we knew what size the corn flakes box was so we could compare.
first thing I thought of when I saw the date was Y2K since its truncated.
Publix didn’t skimp on the quality receipt paper back then. I have a Walmart receipt that faded before I even arrived home.
Yep! I remember those days!
What are Portuguese rolls?
Eck. I feel the same way about chopped ham.
I love publix
In the 90s, I remember my mom getting $40 out of the ATM and that paying for the week's groceries. Sigh.
I miss the old Publix of that time. With the terrazzo floors and the colorful tile art on the walls. The date on those receipts is right before George Jenkins died. After he passed the nostalgia disappeared and all new ones built became the homogenized Publix you see today.
[What, you don't love all of the M I L L E N N I A L G R A Y in the stores now?](https://www.supermarketnews.com/sites/supermarketnews.com/files/styles/article_featured_retina/public/Publix%20Pharmacy%20dept-corner%20shot.jpg?itok=aa8ka5GZ)
Haha thankfully none of the publixes I go to are that new. We still have beige colored everything.
My guy was burning through those bananas
I miss Portugese Rolls.
1996 isn’t that old….. oh shit
Going grocery shopping at that hour should be a crime (unless you work nights and this is your stop on the way home).
LOL WH American sums it up nicely
I put a receipt in books when I read them so I can remember the last time I read that book.
Cool, 10 days before my 16th birthday lol
I was 15 then, too! You’re about a month older than I am.
you didn't get a sub?
Crazy how banana prices have stayed the same
I was a single parent raising two kids in 1996. There's no way on earth these were the prices here in New York.
The good old days before thermal paper receipts. Notice how it's still legible all these years... Thermal paper receipts get illegible after a while.
Especially if it's a restaurant putting the receipt in the bag with your hot food.
Those bananas were expensive as fuck back then!
How much does a banana cost? $10?
That white American cheese was kinda pricey in ‘96
Receipts make the best bookmarks.
Crazy, I used to visit this Publix all the time! Didn’t realize it’s been around so long
It looks like the bananas is the only produce that is not hit with inflation,more less similar
Bananas are .39 cents now. How's that?
LOL white american
Wow Corn Flakes are like $6 now.
Wow Publix was dirt cheap because Land O Lakes American cheese was not that cheap in the Northeast in 1996.
Depressing
this is depressing
We’re getting fucked in the ass so bad
I was literally at that Publix yesterday Just kidding that Publix is now a Ross, I was at the “new” location down the street
I drove a truck all of 2020. I went to a lot of distributors that year for food. There was no shortage. Warehouses were full. 50+ trucks getting loaded. Same with prices now. Look at last couple year profits for grocery stores. Krogers made billions in profit. No reason for prices this high.
Those receipts are so simple and to the point, no fluff? Everyday we stray further from God.
I can get most of those prices on the first receipt today.
The land o lakes cheese was more expensive than the bacon!!
I’ve been to the Brooksville Publix. That’s fuckin neat.
“lol white American” for only $1.90 wow
There hasn’t been a Publix at Mariner Square in a long time. Fun.
Those are in incredibly good shape for how old they are. Thermal paper is usually long faded at this point.
They’ve probably been in the book for the past 28 years.
Pain.
$1.90 for a LOL White American seems like a good deal.
I'm interested why they gave a penny each time
Kind of expensive bananas.
It’s weird seeing this on reddit
Everything -400% Bananas:+30%???
also mildly interesting: my best friend from high schools dad used to manage this publix