A few weeks ago I went to an office supply store to buy some envelopes big enough to fit the construction-paper birthday card I’d made for my friend.
Pardon the language, but the prices were fucking ludicrous:
Thirty-seven dollars for a 50-count box of 9×12 envelopes.
Forty-six dollars for a 100-count box of slightly smaller ones.
Thirteen-something dollars for a 25-count package of the half-size ones.
The last package was the cheapest viable option for me at this establishment. Unfortunately I had left mailing the card till the last possible day. Evidently, I’m very accustomed to being a city-dweller with disposable income in a consumer economy, in which every minor item I need can be had by taking nine minutes out of my schedule to swing by some store somewhere.
But thirteen dollars! For twenty-five folded-and-glued sheets of paper. Or really, for one folded-and-glued piece of paper — the rest will probably sit in my stationery box forever.
I should have said no. Standing in the aisle, dumbfounded, I considered making my own envelopes. I have paper, and glue. I can fold.
There’s an important detail about this particular birthday card that partly explains the dumb decision I ultimately made. Three weeks prior, my friend’s partner had sent me three irreplaceable pieces of a custom-made jigsaw puzzle, which my friend was supposed to receive in instalments, by mail, from various friends, and assemble it on his birthday.
I was determined not be the one to ruin this heartfelt but precarious scheme by failing to get my pieces there. Therefore this envelope absolutely had to be mailed on time, and had to stay intact, so I couldn’t risk making my own franken-velope that might disintegrate en route or clog the mail sorting machine.
Of course I considered taking my business elsewhere, but on this particular day I hadn’t budgeted time for comparison shopping, plus I suspected I’d find similarly ludicrous prices at the competitors. I thought about driving a thrift store on the other side of town, known to sell Ziploc bags of random stationery for a dollar. But I couldn’t be sure I’d find what I needed there, and I could not bear the thought of returning to Staples knowing I would be paying thirteen dollars for an envelope. So Staples won the standoff, because in that moment, due to my own poor choices, it seemed worth thirteen dollars to get this unpleasant dilemma behind me.
And thus by submitting to the tyranny of rising prices, I became their cause. This was wrong and pathetic and I vow never to do it again. It is a lie that I needed a thirteen-dollar envelope. Do not believe it.
Consumers complain about the creep of rising prices as though it’s some impersonal, natural force, like tidal flooding or high winds. But it’s driven by human choices. Some of it’s surely due to bad policy, orchestrated price-fixing, artificial shortages, and other corporate-side conniving. I have no idea how much can be attributed to those things, but I do know that some of the effect, maybe enough of it to make all the difference — comes from the sort of consumer-side entitlement I demonstrated during my errand run that day.
It wasn’t just unwise to say yes to the ludicrous price they were asking, it was wrong. I paid them to keep their prices ludicrously high.
We commit this sin anytime we buy anything we don’t absolutely need at a price we think is “too high.” Too high for what? Too high for me to buy it, or just too high for me to buy it without grumbling about it?
At my local supermarket, cauliflower is $5.99 a head right now. I’m curious who’s taking them up on this offer. Who finds it to be a favorable deal? A cauliflower floret the size of a child’s fist cannot possibly be worth a dollar or more to the typical grocery consumer— that is, to any of us whose household budgets are meaningfully impacted by grocery prices. Do not buy it. Do not buy the six-dollar cauliflower.
The six-dollar cauliflower is six dollars only because enough people agree that they would rather have an unremarkable head of cauliflower than six dollars. It’s not because the grocery gods determine by fiat what people will pay.
Theoretically, everybody has an “enough” point. Most six-dollar-cauliflower buyers really would refuse to put a fifteen-dollar cauliflower in their cart. I hope.
What I’m suggesting is that our “enough” point is often a lot higher than we think it is. The average consumer doesn’t draw hard lines easily enough, and I’m assuming it’s because we are very attached to getting exactly we’re used to getting. We begin our price-related griping long before we change our behavior — long before we start voting the high prices away — and retailers know this.
(Note that by “we” I mean middle class consumers that complain about high prices and keep buying things at stupid prices like I do. You know who you are.)
The retailers know we’re confused about our own level of tolerance. How many of us have complained that the current prices for Thing X or Service Y are “crazy” — I’ve had “enough” of these insane cheese prices! — yet continue to demonstrate that we’d rather have the cheese than the money. We continue to pay the “unacceptable” prices because we actually accept them.
There are truly essential purchases, of course. You need to buy the gas in order to keep the commute going, and everything depends on that. Inflated prices are indeed creating real, external pressure on households that cannot bear it — but we know that and talk about it constantly. What we talk about less is how much of the pain of high prices is inflicted on ourselves and other struggling consumers by our own propensity to accept prices we know we should reject.
In my case, I think it’s because I tend to view the prices of the things I buy as “the cost of living” — the total amount of money the act of “living” currently extracts from me, given all of the envelopes and cruciferous vegetables I feel I need in order to live life as I expect it to be.
A more accurate and more empowering way to view prices is as offers. The supermarket isn’t charging six dollars to the cruciferously-inclined among us, as though we’re being arraigned and fined for the identity-crime of being cauliflower-likers. They are offering cauliflowers to anyone who likes them more than they like six dollars.
It’s simply a shittier deal than we remember being offered in the past, and we should not take it if it is not favorable. Unfortunately for us, the people offering it understand the gravity of our living habits better than we do. They know we’ll probably just grumble a bit and take the deal anyway.
Ideally, every time we see a posted price, we should imagine a question mark beside it. The retailer is the questioner, and you are the answerer. Imagine the price tag is leering at your wallet, propositioning you, the free and sovereign keeper of the treasury — “Hey, that six dollars you’ve got . . . can I have that?”
***
Note: I edited this article on 3/3/2023 to remove the misuse of the word “inflation.” I was using it interchangeably with “high prices” which is not the same thing, as several commenters have informed me.
In other news: in response to the comments on last week’s article about phones-as-virtual-cigarettes, I’ve started a new experiment. View the experiment page here.
Photos by Dennis Siqueira, David Cain, Carol Jeng, Karolina Kołodziejczak, and Chris Liverani
I know it’s not the point of the article, but I can’t help but say that one should alway get stationary products at Target, Walmart, Meijer, the dollar store, the hardware store…any store except an office supply store. I assume they must cater to business customers given their specialty items and sometimes obscene prices.
Good call. In Canada we only have walmart out of those, which I try to avoid for other reasons. But there are better options yes. My recent visit to Staples made me realize office supply stores are going for the business customer, who aren’t working with a houshold budget.
I’ve also found that many drugstores sell a limited number of office supplies and you can usually buy a small quantity of an item for a reasonable price.
Food price inflation makes fresh fruit and veg out of reach for people living on low or fixed incomes. And in the meantime lots of states are cutting food stamp benefits. Food pantries are busier than ever but also struggle to provide healthy fresh foods to their clients. So don’t buy the expensive cauliflower for yourself maybe, but think about your nice neighbor lady living on social security and take her a bag of groceries. Or donate to your food pantry.
Fruit and veg does seem disproportionately affected by inflation. Still, nobody should buy the six-dollar cauliflower for any reason, because it still keeps the price high and there are better options. I’m getting broccoli for under the pre-2020 price sometimes.
OMG I was in Canada last month and standing at the envelopes aisle at Staples and had this exact same experience! And for some reason, bubble wrap envelopes were cheaper than their pure-play paper counterparts at a certain size. Madness, Jerry. Madness.
I also noticed that!
I agree with the perspective on our buying choice and the idea of looking at items as an exchange. We should be asking if the unnecessary item is worth our time/money. Even without all this inflation, it is a good question to ask in order to keep spending under control. I like your idea of adding a question mark to each item – a brilliant way to think about it.
On the other hand, many prices are rising not because that’s what retailers can get for it, but because it is what they need to cover their own increasing prices. If they can no longer pay for their own fuel to get their items to market then they go out of business.
Of course, I’m sure that some do increase the cost just because they can. There are many others however that have to increase it just to keep a little margin to pay for their own family’s dinner after a hard day at work.
I can’t claim to understand how all of the factors behind inflation fit together, and how much is from what. Costs are definitely increasing to businesses as well, in a general sense. I am a business owner, and my costs have increased along with my grocery bills.
However, our acceptance that “inflation is bad” has also resulted in record profits for companies like Loblaws, who own the store that’s offering cauliflower for six dollars. Inflation is undoubtedly complicated, but my point is that consumers ultimately decide who gets paid.
I think you did the right choice with the envelopes and are being too hard on yourself for buying them. You could look at the meta-question in the stationery shop “are you willing to spend thirteen dollars to solve an actual, immediate and kinda important problem RIGHT NOW” and in that point of view you might rationally decide that even though it’s more than you intended to spent originally, spending that will make the problem go away in an instant. If only all of the problems could be solved that easily!
Cauliflowers, on the other hand, are typically just that, some random food item, one of the many. You may apply “check to see if when buying stuff you aren’t buying overpriced items just out of habit” easily there.
The golden rule “be mindful with stuff” still applies. It’s fine to deliberately choose even the crazily expensive option when you know WHY you’re doing that.
Thanks. I mean, I was fine paying thirteen dollars to solve my problem, given the time constraints, but in doing so I am contributing to a problem that affects others, and paying a company I don’t like. It was against my principles and I only did it because I had procrastinated. I agree that sometimes the crazily expensive option is the right one, but I don’t think it was this time.
I rarely mail anything other than cards that came with an envelope. (Actually I rarely mail anything!) However, I get a lot of unrequested solicitations that come with the legal sized “mail your donation back in this” envelope. The solicitation goes in the recycle and the envelope goes into a small stash I keep on hand just in case I need one. For a personal communication, I can use markers, crayons, stickers and whatnot to cover up any printing that is on the envelope.
Love this idea! AND adding a question mark.
I am all for this but it was the non-standard size of my homemade card that created the problem for me. The reason I make cards is because I refuse to pay $8.99 for drugstore greeting card, despite the convenience of it, for similar reasons to the reason I wrote this post :)
Ream of printer paper, Ingles Grocery: under $10
250 security envelopes, WalMart, online order: about the same
“You better shop around”: Smokey Robinson, Motown
Yeah I’m done with Staples now that I know their racket
The old adage is true: “the cure for high prices is…high prices.” That holds true (eventually).
Definitely, but the question is how high do they get before the cure kicks in?
“There are truly essential purchases, of course. You need to buy the gas in order to keep the commute going, and everything depends on that.”
I found myself nodding along and agreeing with everything until I got to this point. at what point is the cost of commuting so high that we should ditch car commutes and live close to work?
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/
I love the premise of the article, and would just encourage expanding the thinking to everything and not assuming any expense is mandatory
I understand this and am a big fan of MMM’s take on commuting (I work at home). I don’t think commuting is mandatory in the ultimate sense, but moving household to reduce fuel consumption is more of a life-design level financial strategy, rather than the kind of short-term purchasing adjustments I’m talking about here. I am totally with you in stepping back and examining the overall structure of our lifestyles and expenses, but that’s not what the six-dollar cauliflower issue is about.
I usually love your articles but I didn’t read this one because I couldn’t “pardon the language.” To me, that type of language is like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. You’re an excellent writer so I’m positive you could have gotten your point across with a different choice of wording. Thank you for your awesome insight and sharing your articles.
I suggest reading it anyway
I suggest you buy the cauliflower anyway!
A stack of fresh envelopes is kind of a nice problem to have. Start making holiday cards now and you’ll be all set by December!
Great article and I completely agree. As long as we keep buying, they will keep raising prices. I walked past the freezer case yesterday thinking about ice cream. My favorite Haagen Dazs was at $6.99. I thought nope, not paying that, and walked on by. I’ve seen it on sale for $5 many times. When I see it for that price again I’ll buy it, but not at $6.99. And I need printer paper, thanks for showing me the office supply store is the wrong place to buy it.
This one is interesting for me. My self-control around Haagen Dazs is so poor that I use the high price to help attenuate my consumption. I want it to be expensive. When I walk by and it’s on sale for $5, which it often is, I turn away immediately, because I fear that I’ll begin a habit of *always* buying it when it’s on sale.
That’s hilarious, but I can totally relate. The father of a friend used to buy a brand of wine he didn’t like so he would drink less.
Sounds like you could have grabbed a free priority mail envelope from USPS and spent the $13 on ensuring it arrived in time without acquiring a surplus of envelopes.
Oops! Sorry. Forgot you’re in Canada. The postal service in the U.S. provides envelopes and boxes for certain types of mailing options (sorta fast and fastest).
I will check if Canada Post does something like this.
I often have a completely different experience – I look at stuff and think “how can they sell this so cheaply”? When I see a T-shirt for under $10 dollars I wonder how it could have gone through so many steps (and countries) to get to the store shelf (and allow the store to make their necessary profit) for $8.99. I work for a nonprofit that has a gift shop and am always amazed at how many things can be sold for under $5.00 – and again, how many steps and hands and countries that item had to go through to get to my shop and allow me to make some money on it. But, regarding the produce, I do wonder how much extra we pay to have each individual apple have a sticker on it.
I wonder this too, and would love to see a breakdown. Especially stores that sell weird niche things like umbrellas or juice or Christmas ornaments. How can a store pay its rent, inventory, advertising, taxes, and wages all from Christmas ornament sales?
I am a longtime fan and follower who has enjoyed the discussions here, and am heartbroken at the lack of understanding of what is being done to us. The accurate definition of Inflation is an increase in the money supply. Since early 2020, the government via the Federal Reserve has created out of thin air $6 Trillion new dollars, distributed as Covid relief checks, enormous vague spending bills, and sending it to Ukraine. Google M2 money supply chart to see for yourself. This printing and electronic creation of fiat money makes all of the dollars that we currently own worth less. There are simply more dollars chasing the same amount of goods, services, and assets. That is why the price of everything has gone up, in proportion to this increase.
It has been intentional. The people creating the money and wastefully
spending it know exactly the effects of their actions. They should be the focus of your anger and attention. Ask yourself, why would they do this? The blame does not fall on the retailer who must recoup their own rising costs to stay in business. Please be curious. Ask yourself, why is our government in such a hurry to spend money we don’t have?
Thanks for this clarification, although I don’t follow your logic that the only morally relevant actor here is policymakers, if it depends on the assumption that prices are rising only as retailers adjust to cover costs. Clearly the public awareness of inflation, and our accompanying expectation to pay more, is an opportunity for retailers to raise prices beyond maintenance-of-profit level. We know for example that Loblaws, who are trying to sell me the six-dollar cauliflower, have experienced a profit increse as a result. They have a right to do that, of course, and we have the option to say no in response. My concern here is not who’s deserving as ire so much as what power we have as a consumer, especially given that we are already downstream of the covid relief policies that have triggered this bout of inflation. I have tried to mock all involved parties equally, erring towards myself.
This made me laugh, in rueful self-recognition.
Most days my head tells me that they can put any price they want on an item. Any price at all. I rarely have to make it the real price by buying that particular item. It shapes future prices if I stick to that point of view.
That’s a more elegant way of saying it than I did above. The posted price does not become not the real price — the price at which trade is occurring — until you accept the offer.
I haven’t looked at inflation from this vantage point yet but it has broadened my internal conversation about the subject.
It’s almost as if choice has been removed from our thought process when it pertains to higher prices at the store. If I want to make cauliflower rice I’m going to pay whatever dollar amount is listed (within reason, although this in itself is benign because I’ve never actually determined where the threshold lies) and then I’ll talk about the ridiculousness at home later.
This article is reminding us there is always choice, and if everyone exercised their right to do so, the possibility to see adjustments made by vendors becomes a reality. Most importantly, this piece shines light on the broader topic of the consumerism mentality. Inflation is another opportunity for us humans to trim the proverbial fat from our lives. Changes are often made when there is friction created between you and the thing- whatever that is. We can view inflation as the thing giving us opportunity to do things different.
This makes me wonder about the low-carb standby of “ricing” cauliflower and whether there are any alternatives. Could the cauliflower bubble be partly as result of how perfect it is for that purpose? I have always regarded cauliflower as a somewhat exotic non-staple, as take-it-or-leave-it as bok choy or eggplant, but I do know a lot of people for whom cauliflower is an essential substance in their diet.
Have you checked the Freezer Section? I’ve seen it there.
I am thankful for Aldi’s and their sales in the Produce Section. I’d really like to find fresh cherries for $2.99 lb every week, but I settle on other produce to fill in!
Hi David, great piece, and I agree with your basic message that we can choose not to pay high prices for certain things that are optional to us (the $6 cauliflower) but as Jay Skinner notes above, you have mischaracterized the actual cause of inflation. The root cause is always an expansion of the money supply. In our current world, that is exclusively in the hands of our governments, who control the money supply. Print more money to please the public in the short term (and get reelected), and you create inflation in the long term as a result. In the past few years, governments have been printing money at an unprecedented rate, thus our current inflation.
Ok, point taken, I will remove the word inflation from the article so as not to conflate it with “rising prices,” which if I understand you right, is not necessarily inflation, because prices can rise for other reasons that changes in the money supply (increase in demand for resource X, ships stuck in the Suez canal, etc). Inflation should only refer to the effects of an increase in the money supply, correct?
David, you did use the word “inflation” CORRECTLY. Sometimes also called “price inflation”, and both terms mean that prices go up. It is that simple.
I studied Economics in the ’80s of past century, and these definitions and understanding of things have not changed: they are solid economic vocab.
And to show how things have not changed, and how money supply fits in the equation:
“The consensus view among economists is that sustained inflation occurs when a nation’s money supply growth outpaces economic growth.”
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp
Ah, ok thank you
Excellent piece, as always.
A good alternative to the usual inflation pieces we are seeing these days.
Good reminder to take accountability and use our wallets to make a choice (or not).
You talk about the power we have as consumers, but that is inconsequential compared to the power we have as voters. Government inflicted shutdowns caused disruptions in the world wide economy that led to further waves of massive, unprecedented spending, not to mention business uncertainty and fear. Inflation would have played out very differently, for the whole world, if the U.S. election result in 2020 would have been different. Elections have consequences.
I’m not sure about this, although it would be hard to measure. A single consumer is constantly incentivizing the behavior of bigger actors, but that person as a voter is only exerting a miniscule fraction of the power needed to possibly change the outcome of one public appointment, every couple of years. Elections have consequences, yes, but a single vote is not very consequential on an election. At least compared to a few years of the consequences of one’s purchasing habits.
I notice the high prices of groceries and try to avoid the really crazy ones. But I also notice that the big grocery companies are posting record profits. Hmm…..
There is actually an investigation going on in Canada right now by the government about grocery price fixing and gouging. I am certain this is part of the problem.
I love neighborhood “buy nothing” groups for that – there’s always someone who has one envelope to give away and at least things don’t get wasted.
At least with food, I have looked at this as an opportunity to eat less. My thought is that the manufacturer is putting me on a diet. Thanks!
I have tried to grow cauliflower. It is VERY VERY hard. I live in Vancouver and we’ve seen them be 10 bucks! Anyhow yeah. Maybe not a good vegetable to pick. I write books about growing food etc and am not an idiot but MAN is it hard to grow one…..just saying. I know that is not really what you mean but….xox
That’s interesting, I have seen huge cauliflowers available for $3 at the outdoor markets in Montréal, will check the price again this summer.
Oh the guilt! I earn an exceptionally good living and I always rationalize buying whatever food I want because I basically only eat whole foods (like cauliflower!) that promote my wellbeing. I generally have no idea what things cost. I have no idea what a cauliflower “should” cost/used to cost. However, I now get that I’m contributing to the high prices of foods by paying what they’re asking. I will start paying attention. Thanks for the wake-up call.
You’re on fire lately mate, I am thoroughly enjoying rereading much of your stuff. Such a positive impact. Thank you
Thank you sir
I love your work! You always make me examine myself more closely. I’ve had the same thought about butter – Hmmmm do I really need it now that it is $9 not $3.
Where do you live? Here (Winnipeg) it’s $6/lb but it has been for years.
I’m milldly amused by the fact that it wasn’t until I read the comments section that I realized I was reading a Raptitude post and not a Mr. Money Mustache post (and even then I was quite a few comments into thinking “gee David sure is commenting a lot on an MMM post; I know they’ve hung out before but…”
But yeah, whenever I hear that prices are going up on a thing, and it’s a Problem, I generally decide to be the demand elasticity that the people with less flexibility need to keep prices at a level that doesn’t drive them broke (e.g. last year, when everyone was on about what would happen to gas prices when the war in Ukraine joined forces with the “summer driving season”, I just noted that I have a sailboat with an electric motor, and a history of bicycle touring, and should invite people out sailing more often while declining invitations to cottages and camping trips).
There is a certain MMM “face-punching” tone to this one haha
David, maybe look for envelopes at dollar store… (much cheaper) also look for alternates… can the envelope be a bubble envelope? much cheaper and much safer.. I stopped going to ridiculous price stores as a policy..
and I agree, never to buy that damn $6 cauliflower.. what in the world!!!
Staples & Office Depot both have clearance sections at the back of the store, often with really good prices. That’s where I bought the metallic gold business-size envelopes in which I mail my tax estimate payments to the US Treasury. Maybe it gives one of their employees a giggle to get such an envelope. (The on-line payment system didn’t work for me.) Also bought a bunch of high-quality 7″ x 9″ notebooks with rigid, colorful covers for 79¢ each, good for my own uses and as little spontaneous gifts for others. Next time you might acquire the envelope first, then make your card to fit.
My mum should set up an envelope shop – charities send her their Christmas and other occasion cards by the tonne (it seems) so she’s got zillions of envelopes.
I’m absolutely doing likewise, and I have been for months now. I stopped purchasing ridiculously priced items. Period. One grocery store has all bread prices up to 7 or 8 bucks, and voila, I don’t buy bread anymore. No problem, I’ll buy or make tortillas! I didn’t notice Cauliflower, but every so often I see Kale prices doubled (Like, are they testing us?) No worries, I’ll pick another vegetable. I’m not buying $10.00 bottles of hot sauce, $12 dollar coffee bean, or $7.00 teas. I have to get creative with my menu, but I’m a good cook, a healthy eater, and when one store seems to be gouging hard, the place across town works fine. Yeah, I have a favorite butter sub that used to be 3.99 and now it’s 8.00- and I stuck in there for awhile- but screw it- that’s over. Since I don’t buy bread anymore I don’t really need the butter anyways. As for overpriced vegetables and fruits? Let’s let them rot- see how that cuts into their profit margin.
I didn’t notice the envelope thing- but local senior centers often have little stores, or thrift stores. It could be a fun time to think outside the box.
One other point- as I see the arguments that the retailers have no choice.
This is my true observation that all four of the grocery stores around me have each had massive inside makeovers. New floors, fancy display counters, new fridge systems- the works. All of them, even the ones in the not-so-nice parts of town. Every store has a posh feel to it, like I was shopping on Rodeo drive or something.
I’d rather shop in my clean, older store with affordable essentials.
Jay Skinner said so perfectly what I was going to say, he’s right on the money man. I’ll jusy say our money is worth way less now, that’s why prices have gone up. Remeber Loblaws profits are also in inflated dollars, so it of course will be way more.
I’m definitely guilty of not checking prices while grocery shopping. I just buy what I need and I buy the same things every week. Few months ago there were couple of instances where I was shocked how much money my grocery was! I decided to switch grocery shop for a cheaper one. I still buy the same things but it costs less.
However, there are things that I will not buy because I think it’s a rip off. For example leather shoes for my 2.5 year old cost £47 a pair! I don’t mind paying that price if I know they will last years like some of the shoes I have. But my daughter will outgrow them in 6 months. I buy on sale only and out of season. There are much cheaper!
Comments on this entry are closed.