We’ve been in our house for a little over a year and it is time to order some additional furniture. I spent a little time on the web sites from which I ordered a 1-1.5 years ago and, for those products that are still offered, compared prices.
A chair that I ordered a year ago for $179:
The same chair today, offered at $199:
Up 11 percent in our world of 3 percent (official) inflation.
How about IKEA? Here’s a shelf that we ordered in May 2022 for $200:
It’s now $260. Inflation of 30 percent in less than 1.5 years.
The $50 chair?
Now $65, also up by 30 percent:
Inflation targeting is a bitch. No matter how high furniture needs to rise, as long as microchips keep getting cheaper, the average of furniture & microchips needs to be 3%.
Yep. CPUs and GPUs are getting faster. The bloatware written by shitcoders is eating all their gains, and more.
In the end, all you get is just more inflation.
Try eating at a restaurant. Enjoy your $11 beer!
Order a few ebikes, and you will be pleasantly surprised by deflation!
Finn: I have a Trek electric bike that came out in 2013 at a list price of $2100 (I got it for $1300 when it was discontinued in 2015. See
https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2015/08/19/trek-t80-electric-bike-review/
). Trek electric “city bikes” today are mostly more expensive, at least in nominal dollars, than the 2013 Trek electric city bike. https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/hybrid-bikes/electric-hybrid-bikes/c/B550/
you mean relative to the cost of a new or used sedan?
Do you have a particular “app” that allows you to store previous pricing for quick recall?
I am currently tracking prices of the parts to build my 2024 new Windows Computer. I am looking for an app that can track the before and after pricing from the vendor. I realize their are web sites that may show historical pricing, but I like to record what it would actually be if the part was in my cart for checkout.
From the “hits close to home” department my number one requirement for the new Windows PC will be to use Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane. I am yet to find a Mac Alternative that I would invest in.
IKEA prices are higher.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amandalauren/2022/10/21/ikea-raised-some-of-its-prices-by-80-percent-heres-where-to-shop-for-affordable-furniture-instead/?sh=5db9784e1d55
And the company is working hard on safekeeping its profits.
https://www.curbed.com/2023/05/ikea-furniture-inflation-cheap-billy-bookcase.html
IKEA knows that they are the only purveyors of Louis XXVII furniture with “Häagen-Dazs” names (I personally love IKEA).