I know I'm showing my age, but whatever happened to penny candy and nickel sodas?

Personal checks are one of those specialty items that has limited application today. I would imagine there is little incentive for banks to contract with printing companies to provide these to customers for free. The banks likely want you to continue to expand your online activity.

We actually ordered a box of checks a few years ago when we moved because we found that contractors were unlikely to accept personal checks, and the new school was requesting checks for my kids’ activities. We paid around $15 for the checks (if I’m not mistaken) back in 2009.

What happened? Unions, worker salary demands, payroll taxes, workplace safety rules, out of control fuel prices, banning environmentally dangerous substances, and so on. Every increase in the standards of manufacturing equals an increase in price.

Yeah, ‘twas really a rhetorical question tinged with longing for my lost youth, but of course you’re right.

Paper checks? My band gives us 10 free paper checks when we open a new account, and will also print more upon request. I’ve never used up the original 10.

So maybe back to the question… What products, especially cheaply made ones, have given you an unhappy surprise by their 2013 prices?

You can still buy the penny candy by the bag from candy stores, root beer barrels and malted milk balls included. Prices vary, and you’d have to count the candies to figure out the current costs. Candy bars that were a nickel are no $1.25 and smaller than they used to be. And movies aren’t 10 cents for kids and bread isn’t 10 cents either.
have you been in prison or were you just hibernating?

Let me get to a phone booth. I’ll call you to talk about your question. A phone call costs a dime, right?

Gone the way of the dodo.

How about postage stamps? The cost to mail a letter is increasing to 46¢ later this month. I’m not that old but even I remember it being much less than that.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I don’t remember nickel soda, but I do remember sitting at the soda fountain counter in the neighborhood drug store and getting one for a dime. It was 12 cents if you requested they put it in a cup to go. The straws were wax paper and fell apart easily, too.

The cheapest candy I remember was penny bubble gum. I can’t recall the prices of other candy, but that one sticks in my mind. I fondly remember Bazooka chewing gum sold individually, which included a small comic strip inside.

I remember 10 cent cokes and if you drank the coke at the store and left the bottle it only cost 7 cents. Any way…Inflation happenes. Why, just follow the paola. And don’t be surprised when hyper inflation happens. Penny candy may go for a couple of fins and a soda pop could cost 90 bucks.

Comic Books were 50¢-75¢ when I was a kid. $2.99—$3.99 now. Yikes!

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I just ordered checks after about 2 years too, and OMG! They have tripled in price!
Don’t feel bad, I felt the same way. haha

Hey—thanks everybody. Nice memories.

Yeah, penny candies. I remember those as a kid. Frankly I don’t know if they still have them or not. I don’t check candy racks much anymore. (although all it seems to have now is toothpaste flavored chocolate bars and gum) But when I was little I thought it was fucking Christmas when my dad gave me a dollar, and I got a shitload of jujubes shaped like Coke bottles, a box of Runts and a pack of Popeye cigarettes. Then I still had like, three cents left to put in my piggy bank.
Well maybe those are still around, but now that I have to pay nearly fifteen bucks for a glass of water and the bathroom key at a gas station, I kinda doubt it. lol

Also I took the city bus to get to school for a while. Cost seventy five cents. Last time I checked it’s like, almost three bucks. What the hell? I might as well just not even go to school.

IMHO, it all comes down to the value of the dollar. When you print money out of thin air like we do, the existing value of the dollar decreases.
Oil hasn’t gone up. Gold hasn’t gone up. It is the value of the dollar going down.
It takes more dollars to buy the same things.

@tom_g, you’re absolutely correct about the economics of paper checks. I’ve done virtually all of my bill paying and other banking online via computer or mobile phone for years. But occasionally I do have to write a check for a one-off service, and now, every time I write one, I’ll remember the cost of the paper check is probably higher than the amount I’m writing it for. ;-)