There are thousands of CPI indexes. People from different sectors of the economy use different indexes.

You can choose your favorite :)

Yes, it’s just a matter of which particular things they put into a basket to measure. Eg. Do you leave housing cost in or out of your measurement? To an extent, like statistics, you can choose the outcome by manipulating the input.

"There are many, many economic reasons why deflation is avoided at all costs."

All those reasons are a cheap excuse for the government to print money to pay the bills.
The government is printing money at a rate of 1 trillion dollars every 100 days.
We have gone over the fiscal cliff and we are accelerating to a global financial system collapse.
The end result is needing a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread.

Another big factor in food costs is the Russia/Ukraine war. The cost of fertilizer has increased substantially because of that conflict. Also remember that when the value of the dollar decreases 20% a company's profit also decreases by 20%. Then there's fuel cost too. Publix is a high class store and if you compare prices they are often not much higher than a store like Walmart. If you shop the Bogos at Publix they can be cheaper

Thats about an average price and yes, its obvious you haven’t been to a car wash lately. Only 2 choices…..pay the price or wash it yourself. You won’t find much cheaper costs

silly people about deflation. .

first, Switzerland has a completely different economic/social agreement than the US. Really the two are opposite, as described by a very smart electrical engineering marketing director friend who moved to Switzerland for work. . And since the US is a consumer based economy, let's focus on where we live versus an economy where we don't live. .. .

With a consumer based economy, if prices are declining and one wants to buy an item, why would you buy it today when the price will be less tomorrow? Come tomorrow, the same dilemma exists, why buy today when tomorrow will be cheaper?

When that happens, commerce starts to grind to a halt, there are surpluses everywhere and few are willing to buy, while most are waiting for tomorrow's final price decrease. . which is why scarcity is a successful business strategy, and a coffee shop on every street corner is not a profitable strategy. What's good for the consumer is not good for the company, and what's good for a company is not good for the consumer. . . but since everyone derives their consumer income from a company or a job. . .

Key point to remember is:
inflation favors debt holders, paying off the debt with cheaper money.
deflation favors the cash holder, as cash becomes more valuable relative to goods and debt becomes harder to repay.

The US hasn't experienced real economic deflation since the 1930's, so for most people, the concept is totally mind boggling.
You had your chance to listen to the stories from your parents and grandparents, if you were old enough to understand them and ask about them. . .

My grandfather was an oil burner repair man. In the depression, they would scavenge burned out homes for furnace replacement parts to keep their furnace working. . . totally foreign concept eh? location: Milton, MA, a Boston suburb

source: my Masters' degree economic paper about the causes of the 1930's depression and stories from dad and mom

This isn't about car washes. It truly amazes me that the vast majority of people (especially the newly uneducated pro-Hamas college graduates) don't understand the cause of inflation.

It is very simply defined as "too many dollars chasing too few goods". So, there are two parameters there: the # of dollars and the quantity of goods.

The government is "printing" dollars at a phenomenal rate. This is the direct result government spending more $$ than it takes in. At today's debt levels, we are past the point of no return. Mathematically speaking, it can no longer be fixed. Debt and money printing will continue until the USD is equivalent to the Zimbabwe dollar in buying power. Yes, it will be completely destroyed. Governments around the world are slowly diminishing the purchase of (and even selling) US treasuries. Google "BRICS" if you are unaware. With no one left to buy our debt at low interest rates, the end will come quickly.

On the other side of the coin, with regard to specific products / commodities (oil, gas, etc), the price goes up (seen as inflation) when supply is constrained (artificially or not). Many products in the USA have been inexpensive because they have been plentiful ... such as clean water. Watch what happens out west and elsewhere as water demand outpaces supply for farming and human needs. This is going to get ugly.

Then you have government interference on the other side such as the $20 min wage for fast food workers in CA. I'm sure most of you have read what kind of havoc that is wreaking on businesses there with many closing up shop. Food delivery drivers are virtually out of business because ... surprise surprise ... people don't find it reasonable to pay $30 to have a meal delivered. And they're not willing to pay $18 for a Big Mac, fries and a Coke.

Of course, the primary driver of this insanity is the government "printing" of dollars mentioned already. More dollars chasing the same things (food, housing, gas, etc) forces prices up which in turn creates the push for higher wages.

This cycle can never be broken unless / until the feds have a completely balanced budget with no deficits whatsoever; spend only what is taken in in taxes. Since we know that is not going to happen, the borrowing will continue simply because the debt service will continue to grow. That's the monkey on our backs ... $1 trillion dollars of tax revenue is now required to pay the interest on the $35 trillion of debt. This huge interest payment crowds out other budget priorities which, in turn, provokes even more borrowing to maintain the status quo. And the debt and interest payments grow even more. Anyone who doesn't see this coming was sleeping in math class. The system will eventually collapse in on itself (Zimbabwe revisited).

I'll leave you with this thought: if your savings, your retirement, your kids' college fund, your future is denominated in US dollars, you are one of the pigs that will be led to the slaughter. 2028 at the latest and, to emphasize that this is NOT a political post, it will happen no matter who is elected president or which party controls either chamber of congress. The USA can not side step this future. It is a certainty. It could happen even sooner if the USA is hit with a black swan event.

If you truly want to curb inflation there are two ways to achieve this.
Flood the market with products to the point where the competition has to reduce their prices just to stay in business or reduce the ever-growing population.

Remember November

Good analysis

Or raise interest rates and curb govt spending.

Dam, and that sign doesn’t even have anything healthy listed on it. Imagine if it showed the prices of lean protein such as fish or chicken tenderloins, nuts, high fiber grains, fruit, and vegetables?

The new car wash on 466A will charge you $25 a month for as many times as you’d like to go.

Not the fault of the business
 

As much as I would like to blame all the higher prices on "Greed", in fact it isn't entirely true, or even mostly true.

Due to runaway inflation, caused buy insane federal spending the value of your dollar has been seriously reduced.

Once we went off the "Gold Standard" the value of the US dollar was based on the value of the US economy. Not actually a bad idea, unless you start printing money faster than the economy grows. Whenever there is a federal budget deficit that means that the "slice of the pie" represented by a single dollar just got a little smaller. Your savings are worth less and your take home pay will not buy what it would last year.

We are a very equity seeking and compassionate country, which is also not a bad thing, I blame all the Disney movies that I grew up watching. I want everyone to be well fed, well educated, and happy. Again, none of these things is fundamentally a bad thing, but they make me vulnerable to being scammed.

In 2024 the government will spend $1,500,000,000,000 more than they earn, or $4,300 for every man, woman and child in the US. Inflation is how we each pay for that overspending.

Every business must make a profit or go out of business. When wages, taxes and the cost of your operation go up you can shrink your profits, lower your costs by reducing the quality of your product, raise your prices or go out of business.
Many small businesses have done all four, in that order.

Wow! Is that like a grand opening special for the first month?

The original post said the cheapest car wash was $34! I think that was for a single wash. Definitely worth the drive down south to save money.