How Rising Prices Are Impacting College Students
All across America, inflation has been spiking prices for food, hair care products, clothing, etc., and this holiday season with everyone shopping for gifts, the wrath of inflation will be felt by all. MMC Students from New York report on different instances of inflation they have come across.
Lead Editor: Gabrielle Fiorella, Deputy Editor: Olivia Pietruszewski
Inflation in Hair Care Products Comes in Volumes
Gabrielle Fiorella Reporting Live From Manhattan, New York
I was in Target by my apartment the other day and noticed how the price of hair care products had really skyrocketed. I regularly have to get dry shampoo because of my fair blonde hair that even when it’s clean, it still manages to look greasy really quickly. Then for the shampoo, I saw a TikTok the other day that showed a hair care professional telling us the yes’s and no’s when it came to shampoo and conditioner. Unfortunately, both of my products were on that list, so there I was in Target, looking for new options. TRESemme was one of the good ones, but I realized it had to have gone up in price. The retail price for these products is $4.99, and this is even just on the Target website and in other stores. NYC just raises the prices to accommodate inflation. With the dry shampoo, it’s $6.49 on the Target website and in other stores, but just not in the NYC stores. Inflation is becoming a huge aspect this holiday season, as it always is to catch up with supply and demand. Products that used to be under $5 or reasonably under $10 are now priced a good amount higher than what they used to be. The dry shampoo is just a huge example because now it’s almost $9.00 or $12.00 when it originally was $6.49. Everything in NYC is either quite expensive or really inexpensive, there really is no in-between these days.
Food, Planes, and Gifts: The Expense Of The Holiday
Rayiah Ross Reporting Live From Manhattan, New York
The pandemic made life extremely difficult for everyone — from fighting over toilet paper to depending on Amazon deliveries for our every demand. I know that personally, the holiday season was hard last year because we all avoided getting together for Christmas and Thanksgiving. This year, everything is different because the world is mostly opened back up. While my family won’t be gathering like we used to, I and many other people around the world will be traveling home this holiday season. During the pandemic, airlines were desperate to fill planes and offered highly discounted fares to entice people to travel despite ongoing restrictions and the risk of the virus. Now the case is entirely different with vaccination rates up and travels openly. Now demand has skyrocketed, and so have ticket prices. According to Holiday Travel Guide, domestic airfare around the holiday is $390, which is 55% higher than 2020. Apparently, the rise in prices doesn’t stop at airline prices and it continues on to all holiday shopping including food and gift-giving. Consumer prices are up 6.8 percent from the previous year in November, according to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Holiday meals will be costlier as well, as the price of food is up by 6.1 percent. The price of meat has increased by 12.8 percent, and beef, specifically, is up by 20.9 percent. The increase in prices is found to put a hole in our pockets but it’s also proving that the world is once again open and running.
There will be Pressure on your Wallet this Holiday Season
Averee Nelson Reporting Live from New York, New York
This holiday season is one of the most expensive in the United States as prices are spiking across the country — from the price of your Thanksgiving turkey to the presents you are buying for the holidays. The Pew Research Center reported that “The annual rate of inflation in the United States hit 6.2% in October 2021, the highest in more than three decades, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).” This has a significant impact on many aspects of what makes the holidays special, as it relies on consumerism. Many people noticed the price shocks around Thanksgiving because the cost of a Thanksgiving meal went up 14% this year, according to The Morning Brew. This was my first Thanksgiving spent in New York City and my first Thanksgiving where I was the one buying our dinner, and as a college student, the price was my main concern. I am always strategic when it comes to grocery shopping in the city because the price of things is already expensive, but I really had to spend a lot of time finding the best deal for our turkey. The Morning Brew highlights via a Farm Bureau survey that the price of a 16-pound turkey cost $23.99 (up 24% from last year), two frozen pie crusts cost $2.91 (up 20%), and a dozen dinner rolls cost $3.05 (up 15%). This survey also said the entire traditional turkey dinner was supposed to cost $53.31 for a group of 10 people, but I found myself paying more than that for a 4 person dinner. I paid $91.48 for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year, and this was one of the most affordable options I found for my living/kitchen situation. Despite the price increases, I still bought the turkey and the demand for the turkey dinner still appears to be high. There is still a strong consumer demand despite the inflation, and that makes me wonder what the aftermath of this high spending season and high inflation period will be. Will Americans recover from this pressure on their wallets?
Inflation Situation
Tess Schumacher Reporting Live From New York, New York
As the holiday season comes closer to reaching its peak, prices rise along with it. It’s known that people are willing to spend more money this time of year in order to get the perfect gifts for their loved ones. Prices of goods rising and money becoming less valuable is all due to inflation. Inflation is a general increase in the price of goods and services over time. It can happen when prices go up due to an increase in production costs, such as wages and raw materials. A rise in demand for products and services can trigger inflation since consumers are willing to pay more for the product. The more people are buying goods, the more the demand for goods. Typically, companies meet the increasing demand by increasing the supply of goods. During the Covid-19 pandemic, most companies and businesses had to reduce their services and orders for goods. This led to some supply shortcomings that are still lingering to this day. As the United States continues to reopen and people start to spend money again, the US demand for goods has gone through the roof. According to Small Town Truth, inflation-adjusted retail spending is up 14% over the past two years. Something in particular that is greatly affected by inflation is gas prices. Gas prices are constantly fluctuating but have been especially rising since Covid-19 has started getting better and people have been going back to work again. The demand for gas has gone up, therefore so has the price.
When did Hardback Covers become so expensive?
By: Kemi Watson Reporting Live from NYC
Before the age of Kindles and other electronic reading databases, hardback and soft covers were inexpensive. As a former employee of Barnes and Nobles in 2010, I witnessed book prices rising every quarter. The rising inflation is still in effect at our local Shakespeare Lexington Avenue bookstore. Personally, I don’t believe there should be a price put on education and reading materials. Inflation is reflecting the current post-pandemic economy and is left to increase the costs of hardbacks. There is nothing like the feeling of opening a freshly molted hardcover parcel rather than paying less for an electronic book. Inflation is destroying the production of hardback covers due to the loss in sales at bookstores and the fall of the American economy.
McDonald’s Prices on the Rise
Natalie Davila Reporting Live From New York, New York
Everything in New York has always been a little pricey but in 2021 it has gone from manageable to out-of-control expensive. Although we are still living in a pandemic that people from physically, mentally, and financially recovering from larger corporations are taking advantage of the average New Yorker. McDonald’s is the best example of this. I am guilty of indulging in the occasional fast-food chain. Even though New York has some of the best restaurants in the world, sometimes I just want to eat garbage that satisfies my hunger. However, the last couple of times I went there I couldn’t help but notice my usual meal of 2 small hamburgers and a small fry was nearly $9. I thought I was charged incorrectly until I took a look at the entire meal prices again. Everything seemed a bit off. No one should be spending this much money at McDonald’s. Until I found an article from Eat This that confirmed: “prices were up by 6% compared to 2020”. I don’t think people would have an issue with this price change if it wasn’t for the constant pink slime allegations, the lawsuits of their meat being deemed “unfit for human consumption” according to chef Jaime Oliver. A billion-dollar company should not be raising its prices at a time where it is not absolutely necessary while the public has been financially strained for almost 2 years now. Fast food is not a luxury, it is mass-produced which makes its prices cheaper, therefore, more accessible to the public. There is no reason why McDonald’s should be expensive now or ever. It is time that corporations start making things so that the average person can afford it ten times over and not have to work an entire hour or more in order to get a small meal.
Rent/Housing Inflation In NYC
Myah Lake Reporting Live From New York City
While we all know already that New York City is one of the most expensive cities to live in, it has skyrocketed high inflation records. In Manhattan, the net effective income increased by 10.1 percent between July 2021 and October 2021 and 20 percent since January 2021, which is the highest level since 1990. Currently rent in Manhattan is up to 27% this month compared to last year and up 4% compared to November 2019. While looking at these numbers shows why many New Yorkers have moved out of the city. Most of this information I believe is due to the pandemic that we’ve had within the past two years, this has really impacted Americans economically. As a college student moving from Minnesota to New York these past couple of months, it has been hard for me to find housing that is affordable. After three months of searching, I finally found an apartment that was affordable, but the NYC rent is extremely high due to these inflation rates. I am a part of many housing groups on Facebook and I’ve noticed a lot of people posting about how their rent has gone up almost 5 to 10% within the past year. This shows that inflation is affecting many New Yorkers and pushing a lot of them out of the city.
Is the Dyson Hair Wrap Price Worth The Hole In Your Wallet?
Hannah Corbett Reporting Live From New Windsor, NY
If you don’t know about the Dyson Hair Wrap, then you’re either not on social media, or underneath a rock. Which might be for the better. At a wapping price point of $549.99, you can get the full Dyson collection with attaching pieces. And a lot of people are wondering why, when there are other hair products just like this for around $50, that work just as well. Tiktok blew up this product with influencers using this tool, and it seems to be a popularity contest. You are able to use Afterpay with this product which is a service that allows you to pay the full price in portions after 2 weeks. I myself got caught up in a 30-second video, and I was feeling the need to take the plunge. I knew that it was expensive but I didn’t know it was THAT expensive. Meanwhile, I have the Revlon Blow Out Brush, which works just as well and I have had that for about a year now. The price point of this product is absolutely mind-blowing to me, especially in a time when everything else like gas, and rent is going up in price; what makes Dyson think they can make this blow dryer set at this price point? Maybe someday they will lower the price point, but up until then I will stick with my Revlon and skip past those videos.
