Prices Only Go One Way – Don’t They?
If you’re of a certain age, you may still have a misguided notion that price is a one-way street. Since the end of the Second World War, we’ve lived through a long period of near constant inflation. Prices only ever went one way – up! You were always being exhorted to Buy Now and Beat the Price Increase! Today, that’s no longer the case; we now expect prices to drop. We expect more and more for less and less. The only things that seem to keep increasing are house prices and transport fares.
Now, when I look at ‘special offer’ LPs I bought for £3.49 fifteen or twenty years back, I can’t believe I paid that much! Today, I’d expect to pay half that amount – maybe less. It’s the same with CDs. What on earth was I thinking of, paying £7.99 for a special offer mid-price CD in the mid ‘90s? Ludicrously expensive! But, at the time, I judged the price to be quite reasonable – a veritable bargain no less. How values change!
To be continued
