Inflation: we just had an eye-opening experience in Boston yesterday

[DFW]

My wife and I were looking for the Post Office on Hanover Street. We chanced on the large open air market a block away. Must have been close to 100 different stands. We expected to hear lots of Italian, but instead heard mostly Berber, as the whole market seems to firmly in Moroccan hands. No matter, my three words of Arabic (I speak no Berber) got us plenty of smiles.

We were heading to the east coast summer capital of food price gouging, Cape Cod, later that afternoon. Since we suspected (correctly, as it turned out) that the drive would take much longer than usual due to July 4th traffic, we decided to load up on some provisions. A few grapes, cherries for the trip. But then we saw the prices. We couldn’t believe it. A pound of select cherries, usually $5 or more on the Cape, was $1.50 here. Limes were 5 for $1. Six decent-sized tomatoes were $1. A large eggplant was $1. Two pounds of California seedless red grapes were $1. Four large red onions were $1. Large lemons were three for $1. And so on. We spent less $20 on fresh produce that probably would have cost us four to five times that much in the shops and stands on the Outer Cape. Our US-based daughter and her family and my brother will arrive shortly, this isn’t all for just us two. We could hardly carry all the stuff back to the hotel. Good quality food, too. No moldy or rotting stuff hidden under the fresh stuff. It was all fresh. If people could beam themselves from the tourist spots on the Cape back to this open air market in Boston for an hour a day, half the supermarkets and produce stands on the Cape would go bust overnight.

The contrast was really striking. We were there early, then went to the post office to send off our letter, and then went back to the market, about half an hour later. In that short time, the place was jammed. At those prices, no wonder! I’ll bet half the fancy Italian restaurants in Boston’s North End shop here for food they will be serving that evening.

Now, everybody knows that downtown Boston is not exactly the low rent district of New England. These people must really work their asses off, and probably have to commute some distance to this market from where they live. Their hands and faces had the etched lines of people to whom life had not made any free gifts. But they kept a cheerful disposition—with us, anyway—especially the older ones who spoke with the heavier accents. Who knows what they went through to get here? Maybe some former Polisario fighters? No idea. But it was a little window into another place, right in the heart of one of the most expensive cities in the USA.

As a contrast, after getting to the Cape—5 hours instead of the usual three—we did go to the supermarket, a Stop and Shop. Only half the cashiers were manned, and instead of the usual diverse spread of students from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Lithuania, Romania, Turkey, Moldova and Jamaica, there were nothing but very young or very old locals. Either the store gave all their usual students here on summer work visas the July 4th weekend off, or something weird is going on out here. Anyway, we‘ve only been here on the Cape for about 12 hours, most of it asleep. I‘m sure we‘ll get a better idea of what‘s going on in a day or two. In the meantime, it‘s nice to hear that old, familiar accent that substitutes an „h“ for an „r“ when following an „a,“ and turns a final „a“ into „er“ in words or names that have it. Even if I‘m not willing to pay „fahty dawlahz“ for a lobster roll.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. good one: "fahty dawlahz" Spot on.

[Wednesdays]

46. St. Patrick's Day joke:

Why does Irish stew have 239 beans in it?

Because if it had one more bean, it would be too fahrty.

[cstanleytech]

2. Well keep in mind the large supermarkets have to do things like

pay their rent and taxes, pay the employees (which is almost always so low they need to get a part time job to survive) and buy the food they sale.

[DFW]

4. I don't begrudge the big stores a mark-up to survive

But I do marvel at merchants that can make a living by selling the same products at 25% of the same price. I'll bet that in proportion, the stand owners have to negotiate just as fiercely to even have the right to set up, and they don't have some national chain behind them to pay their managers' salary in lean times. These people live from, if you'll pardon the expression, the fruits of their labors.

[jimfields33]

25. The stand sellers don't have transportation costs. Food safety laws to contend with

They may even grow their own. I’d not bash supermarkets as they save many people everyday from starving.

[edbermac]

3. The Cape is a summer area so you're going to get gouged

Not too many tourists hit the beaches there in December. Used to go there many summers as a kid.

Hanover street? Sounds like you were in the North End. Good Italian eating around there.

[DFW]

5. The North End is an embarrasment of riches in Italian restaurants.

You starve to death while trying to decide where to eat.

We know about getting gouged at the Cape, and have been accepting it for 40 years (this is our 40th year in a row, and coming from Germany, it's not a casual spur of the moment decision to come here). It's ironic that the Boston Globe recently ran an article listing the woes of people not being able to rent out their vacation homes this year. We tried desperately to find a suitable place, and got so frustrated at not finding anything that we finally took two houses (we have to move to another house for the last two weeks) because there was nothing to be had for five weeks where we usually stay. This has NEVER happened before, and our second house, although we have not seen it yet, is already from the price and location a total ripoff.

[bottomofthehill]

18. 40 years in a row.

You do get the healing power of the Cape! What a great family tradition. We like the Lobster Pot in P-town. It is touristy, a little expensive but fun. My wife gets the broiled lobster which according to her is amazing. None of the flavor is boiled out. We get about half way down the cape to the Chatham, Harwich, Brewster area. It is not a as rustic as Turk, but far enough from Hyannis that you feel like vacation instead of the every day grind.

[DFW]

21. In case you have a spare $14 million laying around the house

The Lobster Pot is for sale.

When we started coming here, our elder daughter was 1, and the second one was on the way. Our girls have also grown up with the Cape, and now that they each have two children of their own, they still try to join us for some time while we are here. The younger one, the one who has made herself a fortune at her job in Germany, even rented a huge house last year, and put up her immediate family, three of her man's four children from his first marriage, plus her sister and her family. We feel a deep connection to the Cape after 40 years, and that does not just dissolve.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. inflation is another word for greed and gouging, but yes i also understand expenses t

too also.

[DFW]

23. Back in college in Econ 101

One of the things the professor ("Bill is my name, professor is my job, so please call me Bill, and not Professor" ) made clear that high inflation is bad, but none is also bad. 2% was not only manageable, but desirable. I forgot the details, but they made sense at the time. Greed never figured into it. Greed is an emotion (emotional disorder, if you like), economics is a dispassionate science.

[bottomofthehill]

7. Couple things

Hit the Market Basket right over the bridge. Prices are pretty reasonable and you are past a lot of the traffic. Get steak tips. If you are staying at a house with a grill and not a hotel, enjoy steak tips on the grill a couple of nights.

The lobster roll at the fish pier in Chatham is not cheap, although less than 40 dollars, but it is amazing. A lot of lobster, a little mayo, a butter grilled roll. Wow.

[DFW]

11. Steak tips are out for me

I have cholesterol issues, with a few cardiac near-misses. When the doc said no more red meat, I took him at his word.

Lobster and mayo aren't exactly on the recommended list either, but I'm only here once a year, so with that I do make an exception. After all, the one thing any cardiologist will tell a patient who has had problems in the past is "if it tastes good, spit it out!" There is a nice place in P-town that is known for its lobster rolls, too. We'll have to make due with that. Chatham is a bit far to go for a lobster roll, although if it is THAT good, maybe I'll have to reconsider.....

We're in Truro, so the bridge is halfway to Boston. But we'll make a note for next year.

[bottomofthehill]

14. Forgot the most important part.

Enjoy time with family, relax, down time is so necessary. We are looking forward to a week at the cape later in the summer. It is where we go to recharge the batteries! Salt air, cool evenings, windows open with out air conditioning. I sleep like a rock. Enjoy the Cape!

[DFW]

28. Thanks! We intend to.

The time zone difference means that even if someone calls me from Paris or Barcelona or Geneva or wherever, the call comes in too late for me to do anything about it. For five weeks out of the year, "that's not my department, says Wernhher von Braun." For more than ten months out of the year, I spend my time running from country to country, sometimes 3 countries in one day. This is the time when I let it all go. My colleagues from Europe will still call me here if there is some thing they just can't decide on, and I'll weigh in, but if they think I'm going to interrupt my one stretch of down time to run across the Atlantic for 48 hours, they have another think coming. Twenty-five years ago, they still used to ask. By now, they know not to.

I interrupted my vacation exactly once, and that was 11 years ago. I got word from Washington that I could have an hour with President Obama in Washington if I wanted to come down for the day.

I wanted:

[bottomofthehill]

35. Amazing picture.

Thank god DU’s own DFW did not start another off color suit controversy for the President

[DFW]

41. He didn't bring it up

So I figured I'd follow his lead

[Boomerproud]

37. Lord what beautiful, genuine smile that man has. He obviously knows a good man

When he meets one. Have beautiful time with your family.

[DFW]

43. Well, he might just have been humoring me, too

Just kidding! We went over health care, Syria, Putin, and even the modern (for 2102, remember) Egyptian economy. The man is an incredible intellect, and if as POTUS you have to be aware of a thousand different things at once, he met the job requirements.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Have a great time

with your family!

[DFW]

12. Thanks!!

This is the ONE stretch of down time I get a year, so I do take advantage of it.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Low overhead at Boston street market

Not so at the Cape. Taxes, wages, transportation make for significant overhead.

[DFW]

13. And that overhead has to be met, we get it

Still, normal mortals need food, and some still live on the Cape. When the difference is a multiple of four or five 200 miles apart, it still slaps you in the face. Grapes from California and cherries from Washington State still have to be brought 5000 KM, whether to Boston or to Provincetown.

[The Jungle 1]

10. We have a food outlet store near me.

They buy food and produce that is near going out of date. The deal are unbelievable.
A 6x12 container of Blackberries for one dollar. 8 of them for 4 dollars. The stuff is still good. You must eat is fast but for the price you can't beat it. I bought 8 and made jelly.

[DFW]

15. Making marmalade is one of my wife's specialties

It's seasonal in Europe, although they do truck things up from Spain and southern France fairly efficiently these days.

[The Jungle 1]

16. Wish I could eat more of it

But I am trying to cut back on carbs

[DFW]

20. I indulge more than I should, probably

I drink a lot of tea, and sweeten it with apricot marmalade instead of sugar or honey (the Russians do some things right). It's an old Russian tradition, and one I find well worth respecting.

[mopinko]

17. they're getting $10/CAN of bud light at the nascar race downtown today.

no discount for a 6 pack.
if they race. it’s been raining and supposed to keep up all day.

[DFW]

19. Hard to relate

I have always hated the taste of beer, and never touch the stuff, so I don't know what a can normally costs.

[mopinko]

34. a 6 pack is about $6.

u can get a 6 pack of GOOD beer for $10-12.

[Phoenix61]

22. I was in New Zealand the beginning of the year and they

we’re have huge staffing issues. They rely on the backpackers to fill service industry jobs and they never arrived. I think people got burned on airfare etc due to covid and weren’t willing or able to plan a trip up to a year in advance.

[DFW]

24. I can imagine

Air fare to New Zealand, plus arranging accommodations, etc.--those are not the sort of arrangements made casually or on a whim.

[Bear Creek]

26. Maximum profits

The CEO of Krogers said in an article that corporations loved inflation because it gives them maximum profits. So built Inflation to contrived. Up until Carter and Reagan the president could and did do price freezes.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. Here in East TN it's always cheaper to shop at your local farmer's market

But look for ones that don't allow resales, because then you get fresh and not recycled produce from a grocery store whole seller looking to dump product. A lot of people will buy wholesale from the same producers that grocery stores use, then sell it cheap at unregulated markets because they have no overhead costs and they charge no tax by pretending they grow it themselves.

But give me a farmer raised market and you got my heart. You get very fresh vegetables and farm products never found in grocery stores like black Spanish radishes, all sorts of gourmet mushrooms, apple melons where you can eat the skins and salad turnips. Then they have lamb all year round with some of the best pork and black skinned chicken I have ever eaten, .

I use to sell those purple brown French Maran eggs, saffron and yellow raspberries for fall and early winter sales there at the local market.

I always love the new foods being introduced to the farmer's markets and the prices are always reasonable compared to grocery store bland foods.

[DFW]

29. At our farmer's market in Germany, it's MORE expensive than in the stores

But we support the merchants there in spite of that. It's a tradition that has been going on in our town for about 800 years or so, and no one wants to see it fade away. Since the opening of the EU, some of the stands have arrangements with farmers elsewhere so that we have small sweet black olives from France, artichokes from Italy, creamy feta cheese from Bulgaria, pastes and creams from Greece, and, of course the local farms that grow their own produce and poultry. It sets up three times a week in our town, and the stand holders are somewhere else for three days a week.

[Farmer-Rick]

30. Sounds delicious

Yeah, here in TN there is no sales tax (which can be as high as 10 percent) on farm raised produce, so the farmer gets a cheaper starting price.

[DFW]

32. In Germany, being Europe, they make it compliacted

7% tax on SOME veggies, meat, fish, bread, 19% on bottled drinks

BUT....some basics, like honey, water, eggs, etc. are tax free

Europeans NEVER make it simple if there is the slightest chance of making it complicated.

The French once got so fed up with all the regulations that they had posters plastered all over Paris saying "defense de defendre" which can be loosely translated as "it is prohibited to prohibit."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

31. Enjoy your stateside time here, my dear DFW! And do say hello to your lovely wife from us both!

We're staying away from the beach this weekend; with the Fourth of July in our faces, plus the sun being out and everyone's crazy from all the overcast days, the beach will be the LAST place we'd want to even get near!



And you know I love the local Farmer's Markets! When they're closed, we are bereft.

[DFW]

33. Thanks, Peggy!!

The house we had last year got sold, so we can't rent it any more. We had to downsize this year, but the place we have for the next 3 weeks is near a small beach only open to people in houses in the area. As long as the great white sharks keep their distance, we'll be happy.

Mrs. DFW say hi back, and our regards to LM as well!

[malaise]

36. Seek and ye shall find

Real nice - enjoy your holiday - I did promise you good weather

[seaglass]

38. I live on the Cape and just spent 1.98 for 2 limes yesterday, hope you stocked up! We moved here

almost 3 years ago (bought 7 years ago) and I still can't get over the food prices - they have only worsened over the last two years.

It has been a very gloomy month of June, hope the weather improves for your stay, enjoy!

[DFW]

49. We bought just 5 limes for a dollar.

Like I said, about a fifth of what we expected on the Cape. It's worse here than in Germany, and THAT'S saying something!

We are hoping for better weather, too. It's supposed to rain for the first part of this week, but get better later on. Here's hoping!

[BannonsLiver]

39. Eh summer vacation spot for the wealthy, I'm not surprised it's that expensive.

[DFW]

44. Yeah, all those wealthy campers out at Race Point for $6.75 a day grilling their luxury marshmallows

Plus our friends who were born here--one who inherited a house out in the Wellfleet woods and grows purple garlic to pay the expenses and the property taxes, and another who cleans swimming pools and hopes to make enough during the summer to pay his winter living expenses, yep, they're just swimming in it. It seems to me that stereotypes say more about those who use them than those they are meant to depict.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

40. If you get bored come visit Pure Joy Farm

Off Holsberry on the way to Pamet Harbor.

Come listen to a full time Cape Codder and how
I'm (jury's out) adapting to living amongst 2nd
home owners (live here 2 months max) at the end of a dirt road and they
control my life.


Trying to sell the place.
2.2 acres borders National Seashore
at the end of a dirt road.

Water secure
Private
Equality for all is this scene (unless you are a poor local)
Truro- thee gated community!
Gonna be one of the last places to sink in this area
when all of the glaciers have melt.

Monday farmers market in Truro
Wed farmers market in Wellfleet
Saturday the market is in PTown

totally recommend- $1 dollars oysters Hog Island brewery extension near Marconi
from 2p-5p and they are amazing.

[DFW]

45. One thing my wife told me 30 years ago

If we ever get to the point where we can afford to buy a house on Cape Cod (or anywhere else we are not going to live in as our primary residence), we are NOT going to do it. She is dead set against owning another house anywhere, especially on some other continent. The headaches of having some place six time zones away that could need repairs, be trashed by extreme weather, and mean additional expenses and taxes is just something she didn't want then and sure doesn't want now. I don't have the time to deal with the paperwork, and unless Truro has suddenly started issuing documents in German, she's not going to look at them,either. Does Truro really have a gated community? Where is it? I could imagine one in Chatham, but Truro?

And you say your house is near Pamet, but borders the National Seashore? What part of Pamet is TH

We visit the market in P-Town on Saturdays regularly. Often combined with some breakfast at the Post Office Café. Good place to practice my Bulgarian. Haven't been to the one in Wellfleet, and found the one in Truro rather small.

One more thing--while we are big fans of most seafood, my wife and I both hate oysters, so no matter how good or cheap they are.

Naturalists have told us that Truro will be connected to the mainland by a bridge over water in 400 years. In all likelihood, we won't around to confirm that.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

51. Your naturalists are over optomisitic

The erosion I have witnesses here near Ballston Bch, has been rapidly increasing in fact accellerating over the last five years. Of the nearly 50 yrs of living here this is beyond what I could have ever imagined back in The early 80's. Lots of salt water intrusion occurring in the water wells of some very lucrative properties along the Pamet.

[DFW]

52. All the more reason to follow my wife's wishes, then

We noticed it at Cobb Farm starting 20 years ago, but we haven't stayed there for a long time now.

Some poetic justice you'll appreciate: We were renting from a family for years, and then one day, a pump broke and flooded their lower floor. A workman came out and shook his head saying the pump should have been changed seven years ago. One of our daughters had slipped in the dark the night before, and injured her head to the point where we had to make the drive down to Hyannis Hospital (an hour by car) in the middle of the night to get her stitches. The owners were terrified we were going to sue them (long live the USA), which never even entered our minds. They told us they weren't going to rent their house the next year, so we had to find another place. We found out from a real estate agent that they had lied, and did indeed rent out their house, but to some members of a college fraternity who absolutely trashed their house. Poetic justice. They didn't get sued, just screwed.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

54. It's bitter sweet.

The hiking/biking trails are stellar! If you know the local gems with best
times to frequent, can read the tides along with wind direction to head out
on a 9 mile hike or 22 mile singletrack/ fireroad challenge amongst beautiful
beach forest/ brush forest delight especially for those who appreciate solitude in nature
this place is a gem. Once I sell a and move out, I know I can never come back.

This place has changed so much.

[DFW]

55. I hear you on that

We have been coming every year since 1984. There have been changes, but relatively gradually for us. I think if we had come for a few years in the 1980s, and then stayed away for 20 years, and THEN come back, we would have gotten the shock of our lives and never returned.

As it is, some people we have known have moved away, some locally owned locales we used to frequent have closed down. After 35 years, you think they are like Mount Everest--they have been, and always will be there. But owners are mortal, rents can increase, and things DO change, and not always for the better.

I have been doing a show on WOMR once a year since 1984. I must have gone through nine or ten different hosts over the 40 years. But I am always welcomed back--the musical summer renter who comes from Düsseldorf. But nothing lasts forever. If my wife one day says, "40 years of the Cape is enough, let's try something different. Nova Scotia, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Iguaçu Falls, the fjords of Norway, or even something really exotic, like Montana," then we will. If the Cape, for some reason, turns out to be a disappointment this year, it could be a turning point for us. If we were to stop for one year, I don't think we'd be back, either.

[Mr.Bill]

42. Our local Farmer's Market is a tourist trap.

Last edited Sun Jul 2, 2023, 03:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Being in the north end of wine country and having the largest natural lake in California brings enough tourist traffic for the market to gouge. I'm talking about tomatoes at $5 a pound, a 6 oz jar of jelly or jam for $12, etc. Roughly about double the supermarket prices. And even though our economy is somewhat agricultural and the stuff is local grown, there's nothing spectacular about the products there.

The vendors there are a tight knit group of people and they have ways of keeping people outside of their group out of the picture. My wife does a lot of canning and we were thinking about selling things there and they make it nearly impossible for anyone to come in and be profitable.

[DFW]

47. $5 a pound for tomatoes sounds more like the farmers market in Provincetown

A few local farmers come in, often with pushy young people as sales people, and they cleverly get out of telling you the price until they hand you a bag with thee tomatoes and tell you it's $14.75

[SYFROYH]

48. Sounds like the Haymarket.

I would stop there on the orange line, pack up tote bags, and continue on to Malden when i lived in Boston.

[DFW]

50. I think this was just called the Boston Public market

I'm sure it has other unofficial names

[Hekate]

53. Such exotic locales-- enjoy! enjoy!

[live love laugh]

56. Cape Cod is beautiful in the summer time. Enjoy!

[DFW]

57. We know, thanks! This is our 40th year in a row.

When we first came, we were 32. We are now 71. We are no strangers at this point.