John Smith would be so proud (Pure Capitalism at it's finest)
There's this one mini market I shop at in town that has a charming feature about it: every so often it shows me capitalism at it's finest. Occasionally, when I go to pay, items are more expensive than they are marked. As the proprietress rings me up, she takes things out of my basket and announces the price as she inputs it into her calculator. Every so often she'll go this price has gone up. It's now ____. It doesn't matter if a lower price was marked on the price sticker on the shelf it was on, or if the price physically marked on the actual product in permanent marker on the product is lower, the price has been raised. I didn't start noticing this till recently (like in the past couple months) Sometimes I feel a little part of me, some dormant vestige of myself from 2006, stir and want to argue. "It's not right. If the price is marked X, the price is X, not X plus something." (the Xs are always replaced with the original amount of the item...don't worry, I don't think in algebra). The 2008 version of myself always takes over, going with the flow, realizing this is just the way they do things here (and by here I mean in her market). I've had my fights in the past, gotten all huffy and it's done nothing (wait, I can't buy shampoo and conditioner separately, I have to buy them as a pair? But I bought them separately last month. In fact, I only bought conditioner...I ended up leaving conditionerless and angered). I've always thought it's because food prices, and oil costs really are rising.

Until today. Last week they got in Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix (in 2 flavors: Devil's Food and Yellow) Retail price 180 escudos. I bought one and made it and really liked it. I liked it so much that two days later I went back to buy another one. They were all out of the Devil's food, so I bought one of the two last remaining Yellow ones. Today, two days after buying my second box of cake mix, I went in the store and they had replenished their supplies. The sticker below the boxes said 180 escudos. I checked twice because I'm a dork and was comparing prices. When I went to check out, as the proprietress was pulling things out of my cart, she said "cake mix, 200 escudos, the price went up" The 2006 version of me stirred, but the 2008 version just gritted her teeth, said nothing and paid. I kinda wanted to say "The price didn't go up. You saw that they sold well, and decided to increase your profit." It's what John Smith says any rational person would do, and it's cool to see (almost) pure capitalism in action, working right before my eyes.

However there's a part of me that still doesn't like it and feels that it's somehow unethical. Ahh, the inner capitalism vs. socialism battle, which, kinda makes sense given my background (if you think about the cliches of being both an econ major and a alumna of Berkeley).