Monday, August 22, 2005

Crazy Price Increases

I don't have any stock articles to post or any comments on my portfolio. I was going to talk about how Pfizer (PFE) is at an almost 5-year low and yielding over 3.5%, but not today. Or even wonder if Merck can continue to deliver their dividends since it's yielding 5.4%. I just want to rant on some price increases.

I know everyone is complaining about gas prices so I'll let MSN take care of that (although I should be complaining since gas prices are nearing $3/gallon in the San Francisco area).
Going to the movies should be a fun time to relax. But these prices are getting out of control!
I went to the movies this weekend and two tickets, nachos, one big drink, and one medium popcorn ended up costing almost $30! This is an insane amount. I remember (alright I'm sounding old with all this "in the past" talk, but I'm only 23) movie tickets costing $5 or $6 bucks and the popcorn was a lot cheaper. With my last internship going to the movies would eat up almost 15% of my weekly paycheck. So 15% of my take home pay is gone in around two hours. Now it's a lot smaller since I have the full-time job, but it's still $30 for the movies.
Plus, one theater around here charges an extra quarter per ticket for Saturday night showings.

Another price increase that has risen dramatically is the price for parking in a garage. When I was a college freshman the garage charged $2/day. Now it's up to $2/hour and $8/day. The price quadrupled in about 5 years. Don't even get me started with parking in the financial district of San Francisco ($20/day).