# Things whose price has barely changed in decades **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921 "2025-12-21T20:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/41 "2025-12-22T15:20:38Z")
So we should call it shitflation? There is always trumpflation. It has nothing to do with him personally but it has the advantage of driving one particular idiot nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/42 "2025-12-22T15:26:52Z")
_Wheel of Fortune_ hasn’t raised the price of vowels since 1983. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/43 "2025-12-22T15:33:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The dollar tree still sells a large tube for $1.25. That’s where I always buy my toothpaste. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/44 "2025-12-22T15:41:00Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > In between costco, sams club, little ceasers, dominos and Papa Johns, medium and large pizzas are still fairly affordable. But the non-chain pizzas are far more expensive and some chains are pretty expensive. This is exactly what I’m seeing as well. Buying a large 2-topping pizza from an “artisanal” pizza place around my house will set you back $35. Don’t get me wrong, it is very, very good pizza, but it is hard for me to justify paying that kind of money for pizza. So, I usually stick with forgettable, but still completely acceptable, Little Caesar’s or the like. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/45 "2025-12-22T15:44:41Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > McDonald’s prices have NOT doubled in the last six years. [![](https://blogs-images.forbes.com/michelinemaynard/files/2017/12/mcdonalds-value_0-300x248.gif) ](https://blogs-images.forbes.com/michelinemaynard/files/2017/12/mcdonalds-value_0-300x248.gif) Remember the Dollar Menu? The “value-priced” items at McDoanld’s and other fast food joints definitely cost a lot more than they used to. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/46 "2025-12-22T16:52:53Z")
Real clearly one heck of a lot of consumers are riding the quality escalator down from department stores to Target stores to Walmarts to bargain / closeout / dollar stores. And doing similar with their eating. All of these trends, and the corresponding tricks of corporations doing shrinkflation, shitflation, outsourcing, offshoring and all the rest have one thing in common. They’re essentially one time tricks. You can incrementally cut quality, or shrink packaging, over and over a little at a time. But that only goes only so far. Once a “family size” bag of M&Ms has 1 or 2 M&Ms in it, what next? Once the shampoo is so watery it doesn’t foam, what next? Once you buy everything at the dollar store, what next? Once everything you sell is made in Myanmar, what next? I get the feeling of a lot of economic factions each acting like passengers on a rapidly sinking ship. They’re climbing over each other to get up and away from the water even as the amount of ship still above the surface is ever-shrinking. Once the tip of the ship is at the water level, it’s going to be real unpleasant for everyone all at once. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/47 "2025-12-22T17:44:45Z")
Televisions. You can buy at 32-inch Samsung smart TV at Macy’s right now for $177. I paid about $200 for a 20-inch CRT in 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/48 "2025-12-22T18:04:23Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is the one that I was going to mention. I bought my first personal computer (a 386 desktop) for about $500, in 1994; I’ve bought probably fifteen desktop and laptop machines in the last 30 years, and the pricing has pretty consistently been around $400-$500 for a basic model, and $800 to $1000 for a high-end model (even more for a high-end gaming laptop these days). I bought a Commodore 64 in 1980, just after it came out and before it migrated to ToysRUs for about $600. That’s held pretty constant except for AT&T 6300 I got from an auction at Bell Labs where I worked. But it was used. > [@Reply](#): > > Meanwhile, RAM is like, what, a billion dollars now? Prices increased fivefold in just a few months: [RAM price crisis LIVE — all the latest updates on price surges, global memory shortage, expert advice and more | Tom’s Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/live/ram-price-crisis-updates) In 1973 Ed Fredkin told my class that maybe someday RAM would be as cheap as a penny a bit. If that were the best we could do, your billion dollars for RAM wouldn’t be hyperbole. I don’t doubt there is a blip now, but the last time I looked at thumb drives the prices were about the same as always for massively more memory. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/49 "2025-12-22T18:28:07Z")
Anything involving digital electronics is the huge exception to ever rising prices. The other major exception being anything that embodies a lot of touch labor on work that can be exported to Asia. Although folks in the digital electronics industry will tell us the era of huge gains in bang per square centimeter of chip and in speed are both coming to an end. At least with conventional tech. There are searches out there for radically different ways of doing things. But the last ~60 years’ gravy train of ever better, faster, smaller, _and_ cheaper has just about run out of steam. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/50 "2025-12-22T18:34:46Z")
Taco Bell has gotten a lot more expensive than it used to be. Item 2000 2025 Mexican Pizza $2.50 $5.00 Taco $.79 $1.99 Bean Burrito $.99 $2.49 According to the CPI inflation calculator, $1 in 2020 has the same purchasing power as $1.92 today, so the price increase at Taco Bell exceeds inflation. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/51 "2025-12-22T18:43:18Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > McDonald’s prices may not have doubled in the last six years, but they have definitely gone up, quite a bit. The menu prices have, but the prices in the app are often much lower. I rarely pay “list price” for anything at McDonald’s or Wendy’s these days. In 2019 I almost always did. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/52 "2025-12-22T18:44:03Z")
I would argue that Domino’s offers a _dramatically_ (delicious instead of barely edible) better product than they did twenty years ago; in Canada in 2025 a large 4 topping pizza there is C$14 (US$9). But sure, no one is going to compare it to wood fired pizza Neapolitan. It’s still quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/53 "2025-12-22T18:44:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Once a “family size” bag of M&Ms has 1 or 2 M&Ms in it, what next? I was at the mall and decided to get some peanut M&M’s from one of those classic Bubblegum type machines since the price was still 50 cents, I got two M&M’s. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/54 "2025-12-22T18:47:46Z")
I don’t think Dröste was anything special, despite a fancy name. (The internet says the Dutch company was founded in 1853 in Haarlem and closed permanently last year; maybe it was better than I thought.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/55 "2025-12-22T18:54:50Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > > McDonald’s prices may not have doubled in the last six years, but they have definitely gone up, quite a bit. > > The menu prices have, but the prices in the app are often much lower. I rarely pay “list price” for anything at McDonald’s or Wendy’s these days. In 2019 I almost always did. Which is a whole 'nuther area of skullduggery: products whose price varies dramatically depending on which person in line is buying it. Call it “Discrimflation”. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/56 "2025-12-22T18:59:03Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Which is a whole 'nuther area of skullduggery: products whose price varies dramatically depending on which person in line is buying it. > > Call it “Discrimflation”. I’ve worked in retail, e-tail or consulting to them for 25 years. Trust me I know. Charging each person a price that they are just willing to pay has been a dream of sellers forever. It’s only become possible on a wide scale in the last 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/57 "2025-12-22T19:02:51Z")
I think the fee structures on equity index funds have actually lessened since I started contributing in the 80s. I remember my grandfather explaining them to me as a kid. He said investing was going to get cheaper and investors wouldn’t have to spend all the leisure time doing research. He had a point there. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/58 "2025-12-22T19:06:29Z")
Yep. I thought it particularly apt that you were the person to bring up this example, but it was one you encountered as a consumer, rather than your usual C-suite cartoon villain persona. 😉 The thing that annoys me is the “jump through a hoop and get a discount”. Where it seems the real goal isn’t data gathering, or margin maximization, but just getting the consumer to jump through a hoop on command. Good dog! Have a treat. I feel like I’m being trained. But I don’t know what for. Yet. [cue ominous barking noises] ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/59 "2025-12-22T19:14:52Z")
Good One! (— Cheap post! ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921/60 "2025-12-22T19:21:47Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Televisions. You can buy at 32-inch Samsung smart TV at Macy’s right now for $177. I paid about $200 for a 20-inch CRT in 1992. The interesting thing there is a 32 inch LCD TV is considered entry level NOW and a 32 inch CRT TV in 1992 would considered a luxury, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-whose-price-has-barely-changed-in-decades/1025921.md?page=4)