Inflation

[xela]

I happened to be going by the Med Center today right around noon, and Goosebeary had no visible line. I hadn't been there for more than a year, maybe two: the founders sold the business a few years ago, and it just wasn't the same anymore. Not that it wasn't generally good under the new owners — but it sure wasn't consistently outstanding anymore either.

But since I was there, and it was lunch time, and the sky had apparently wrung itself out for the time being, I decided to give it a try for old-time's sake.

So I parked, and looked at the menu board to remind myself how things work under the new regime — and a basic chicken dish was $6.00!

When I first stumbled onto Goosebeary in the early '90s, it was $3.00. Three bucks for an amazingly tasty lunch: chicken cooked and/or slathered in some wonderfully tasty sauce, rice, and salad. All delivered out of this beat up old truck with such lightning speed that I could get in the back of the line, count off fifty or more people leaving with their meal by the time I got to the front — and as I was leaving with my food, could see that the person who'd been at the back of the maybe five-person line at the neighboring truck when I arrived was still waiting.

I feel like they kept that three-dollar price-point for most of the '90s. Certainly for long enough that I remember expressing my astonishment aloud to many people. When they did finally raise their prices, initially it was to $3.50. And that only for beef and pork: chicken and tofu were still $3.00.

And now it's double that. And, I have to say, for nowhere near as tasty a meal. The only constant is change, of course. But that doesn't keep me from being wistful for the past.

Comments

[dmaze]

The Momogoose experience was so different from the Goosebeary's experience (both much slower and less tasty) that I sort of assumed, having been away from the MIT/Kendall area for a long time, that Goosebeary's was just kind of gone but there was still demand for an Asian food truck. If lunch is that direction for me, I never even consider it these days.

I've also gotten used to lunch being $10 or so, though a lot of this is Adult With A Technology Job. Jose's and Clover, in truck land, both run $6-8 for most things. Have prices doubled in 15 years? That'd be 4.7% inflation a year, which is a lot. But I don't actually remember what lunch cost me as a student, just that I was able and willing to pay it.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I think when Goosebearys was $3 the going rate for lunch was often$4 at other food trucks and $5 at Verdes or Frescos or that sort of thing. Subs etc seem to bave drifted up to $7-$8 elsewhere though i can't say I have checked Verde's. Other lunch definitely in the $7-$10 price point these days so $6 for goosebeary's successor is not that far off proportionally.

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

Compared to tuition, food is practically free.