The Price of Everything

What are the words/expression of 2021? "Supply chain"....hmmmm maybe. Lately, at least around here, it's been "inflation".

Everywhere I go I'm reminded how much prices have jumped lately. Definitely when I go to the gas station:

And, of course, the grocery store, where $30+ steak and $7 strawberries seems the norm now. But I'm also reminded about how expensive everything is just from walking down Wellington Street and seeing how much little treats are these days, whether it's a box of donuts from Susie Q ($36 for a dozen donuts) to buying pizza at Tennessey Willems:

$20+ for a meal is almost as cheap as it gets these days

Another thing I've noticed is how businesses are trying to get a bit sneaky by shrinking portions to avoid too drastic price hikes. It's especially noticeable with beer in pubs. Just a couple of years ago buying a 20 oz pint was standard practice. Usually a pint would cost somewhere in the range of $8 to $10.

These days, many pubs are shrinking the size of draught beer. It started by reducing the size of a pint to an "American" pint - 16 oz. But I've recently started seeing places go even smaller than that. Interestingly many pubs are now advertising their pints using the metric system (probably because 330 ml sounds impressive compared to say, 14 oz). I can't fault pubs too much for all these changes though because I am sure many of them are struggling just to survive. But it is another sign of the times. The era of cheap everything is over...at least for awhile.