I am not trying to incite anything, so hold the blow torches, and check out your neck of the woods. Last week, a head of lettuce was 1.20, tops (Merikan), today, same size is 1.79. Beef hot dogs are over 3.00 per pack, last price I remember was under 2.00 (maybe I am wrong). Bottle of Liquor was 1.00 HIGHER than it was last week!! But then some canned veggies are sale priced. Whats the deal?

-- Dammed The Hot (Dogs@passtheliquor.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

In a word ...Inflation. That evil spector once thought deceased seams to be crawling from out of the crypt. The 3 key items for y2k Real problems are Oil, Oil, and let's not forget Oil. I have not been paying much attention to the immediate press babblings but am waiting for at least a week to see if there are increasing reports (leaks, pun intended) on problems with drilling or refining. Remember the 73 oil recession (3-6% drop in supply by withholding production not a production problem). If Nothing else goes wrong, but the effieciency losses in oil cause a 5-10% drop we are in recession. A recession at record (until today) stock prices and incredible US debt levels (private, commercial, government).

We are sitting on a powder keg, while puffing away on our cigg's, oblivious to our surroundings... Until...

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), January 04, 2000.

Where are you located? I'm in southern California. I noted higher prices last week, a few days before New Year's Eve. What I particularly noticed was the fresh vegetables. Broccoli which had been .99 a lb, a week before is now $1.99; green beans, which were 1.79 lb. are now 3.00 lb; cauliflower which was .99 lb, is now 1.59 lb. and gourmet mixed salad greens, which I always thought were way too high at 4.99 lb. are now 6.99! We live in an area that is agricultural, where all sorts of vegetables are grown year around, so I was particularly shocked by these high prices.

-- Linda (lindasue1@earthlink.net), January 04, 2000.

This always was my fear. Higher prices for food. This is happening in Alabama right after the new year. Hark, do you hear a coming cold spell, in food that is.

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), January 04, 2000.

Linda,

Some of that produce may be locally grown, other is imported. Broc and caul and lettuce grows in Calif. Green beans are warm weather crops and are shipped in from elsewhere - probably Central or South America. That's where our grapes come from this time of year.

-- 5r2k (fiver2000@aol.com), January 04, 2000.

i live outside washington dc and was stunned when i went to my same grocery store to see the prices and the quality of produce. i thought something must be up???? been for a few weeks now.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), January 04, 2000.

Modified handle, still same. Linda: I am in Fl. Honky Lips: Too Funny!, E.T.:Hot dogs being (once) a cheap meat for those whose income are lesser than others, has me concerned. I will continue to monitor, and if things return to norm. (last weeks prices), I will report. Please do your research, in your own neighborhood.

-- Damn The Hot (Dogs@passtheliquor.com), January 04, 2000.

Watch bananas.

I just realized the truth (no, I'm not kidding) - if bananas of good quality are readily available in 4 weeks then all is well. They can't be frozen, don't keep well, need to be harvested, transported locally, pass through customs, on ships, then efficiently trucked to local food marts all across this great land. Fresh bananas year round everywhere is the wonder of the 20th century.

Watch bananas!!!!!!

-- Me (me@me.me), January 04, 2000.

I saw the prices rising way back in Oct. 99 here in N. CA. Since we got a Foods 4 Less in town last month, they are cheaper than Lucky's and Raley's. Lord knows I don't need any canned goods, beans or rice, but I've got seeds to sprout and lettuce to grow and my plan is to start all my veggies tomorrow. BTW, I have tomato plants growing in a sun room, they are 6 feet tall and loaded with blossoms, so hopefully I'll have cherry tomatoes by the middle of March. Grow your own, it's the best way.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 04, 2000.

I have a very small institutional food service disposables business. I sell to independent fast food, mobile caterers etc. I saw my prices on paper, plastic and foil products start going up last month and more increases coming this month. We will also see this in the retail (supermarket) future pricing.

This is inflation ..... keep your TP !

-- tc (trashcan-man@webtv.net), January 04, 2000.

Squid, "Sitting on a powder keg" " shooting off sparks". remember the song? I certainly hope/pray it is only "sparks". My heart hurts for the minimum wage . I make a decent salary before all taxes, been broke for months. No credit cards, can't get one, since I paid them all off. Strange quirk of credit cards, you gotta have open credit cards, with sans balance. before they will give you another. They do not look at excellense of paid out credit. "Speed" to you!

-- Damn The Hot (Dogs@passtheliquor.com), January 04, 2000.

I remember seeing a note in the Canadian press last week to the effect that a minimum 3% charge would be added to food and other transportation costs because of 'fuel cost increases.' And before even seeing that I'd received, weeks earlier, an invoice with an addition 'fuel surcharge' cost added. I guess we'll all be seeing more of those charges...

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 04, 2000.

Dog -- I went from having good credit to having bad credit, to having no credit (with lots of debt) to having no credit (with debt paid) to having good credit.

It's amazing what a bad divorce and a near-fatal car wreck can do to destroy a guy's finances.

Anyway, I finally paid everything off, and for years I was debt free and credit free. Then I needed to get stuff by mail order (computer parts, software) and no one wanted to deal with COD.

I was in the same boat. No debt, no recent bad history, no credit.

What I did was to get a secured Visa from Capital One (under their former name, which I forget). I gave them something like $500 deposit, got something like $750 credit limit. (I forget the amounts, but it was 1.5 * the deposit.)

They upped my limit a few times over the next year and a half or thereabouts, until it was approx twice the deposit amount.

Meanwhile, I used it for routine purchases, and kept it paid off.

Doing that established a current credit history, and I started getting offers of unsecured cards. I accepted one from AT&T, and informed Capital One. They then refunded my deposit in order to retain me as an unsecured customer.

No miracles, and actually sort of a boring story. The moral, of course, is to avoid any of those dubious "credit repair" scams, and just establish credit using what's available. It's been a long time since I "rebuilt my credit", and although now my credit is good, it was *so* bad back then that I didn't think *anyone* would ever extend me a dime's worth.

Given the fact that your situation is nowhere as bad as mine was, I'd think you should be able to reestablish it with even less effort.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 04, 2000.

Mr.Ron, I am in too deep to care about a credit card, this late date. Got a hand pump well that works beautifully. Grandkids, cranked the shaft, waterfall made a canal, they got ideas to dig a lagoon, at the end of the canal. Such mud-crested children, how beautiful they were.

-- Damn the Hot (Dogs@passtheliquor.com), January 05, 2000.