When Will The Prices Go Down?

I was at the store a few hours ago, one of those large mega-marts, and as I was shopping I started to notice a few things. In my house I do all the shopping so I am familiar with many of the prices of the products I purchase on a regular basis. I can usually guess my grocery cart total price to within $10. So, there I was walking the aisles and getting the products I needed and looking at the prices. All of a sudden it hit me.

Then the gas prices started to go crazy in early 2008 the retailers quickly raised the prices of most of their items. “The cost of transportation went up,” they always said. Well that does make some sense because the price of gas has risen to over $4.00 per gallon and diesel fuel, which is used by the big trucks, was even more expensive. So I accepted the increase in price for the products I purchase.

Now the price of gas is the lowest price in several years. While I was shopping for groceries today, I noticed that none of the prices had gone down, in fact a few of them seem to have gone up lately. It would make sense that once the transportation cost was reduce because of the lowering cost of fuels, especially now that the prices are at record lows, the price of the products should have dropped also.

Well they didn't and we, the consumers, are still paying more for our products than we should. Some may say that this is because we are having the worst Christmas season for many years but I disagree. The price of fuel has been dropping for a few months now, well before retailers had any inkling that they would have lousy sales this season.

So what can the consumer do? I really don't know. Me personally, I am going to start to shop at several locations and make note of the prices for the products I purchase. I am planning to start tracking the stores where the products go up in price, or stay the same. It may cost me more in time and money but I plan to spend less at some of these mega-marts. With this information built up over time I should be able to determine which stores save me the most money on certain products.

I am all for purchasing a product at the lowest possible price. I am all for retailers getting a reasonable price for the products they sell. But when prices go up for a reason, they should come down for that same reason.