I ran out of unbleached white flour yesterday, so I made a mental note to get some when I went to Stater Brothers over the weekend. Of course I would like to buy it from Clark's Nutrition, but let's face it, Staters is cheaper. I saw it at Ralphs last week for $5.79 and thought, "yikes! Ralphs really marks up their stuff!"
but then I went to Staters.
King Arthur white whole wheat flour and unbleached all purpose white flour is $5.00!! I seem to recall that a few months ago the price was more like $3.50. I was a wee child the last time this country went through a bout of stagflation, so this type of price increase is really unnerving. I've been watching other prices tick up slowly (e.g. yoplait yogurt is now 70 cents instead of 50), but NOTHING could prepare me for this type of jump. It made me want to buy 10 pounds of flour and store them in my pantry. Despite the fact that I really can afford flour, the fact that the price increase made me want to start hoarding made me think.
If price increases are scaring me, what in the world is it doing to people in the developing world? I know I've been hearing a lot about how prices are affecting people in India, haiti, Egypt et al. When people can't feed their families, they riot. Then governments have to either violently crack down or somehow wrangle more price supports. It is inherently destabilizing in a lot of the world, especially in places that are strategically important (i.e. the middle east). Price increases are inconvenient for me, but are downright dangerous in other places. I saw an Economist cover the other day that called the increase in commodity prices the silent tsunami. I believe it now.
scary
