Redmond, OR: population 37k; price of one pound sandwich sliced roast beef at the deli = $21
Tremonton, UT: population 13k; price of one pound sandwich sliced roast beef at the deli = $11
Both price points within two weeks of each other 🤔
Discussion
Did they send you out to gather intel in the provinces?
There used to be a small army of people who did just that, did not survive this year. When I had a job a big part of my responsibility was CPI analysis and now those numbers are such garbage I would not be able to do my job (if I still had a job)
I guess I was just shocked to see how different the different locals can get in terms of price so quickly. Especially given Redmond wasn't that much bigger and is similar in terms of high desert hard to access location.
Are you sure they're really directly comparable? Maybe the more expensive one is at a famous place.
I knew there used to be that army of economists going around, but I had assumed computers had obsoleted them. Its kinda shocking that it wasn't axed until this year.
How far away was the closest train terminal to the Utah sandwich? And how far from either that or a seaport was the Oregon one? I don't actually know where Redmond is. Well... Sorry, not trying to turn nostr into work.
No it's ok I genuinely enjoy what I do. Tremonton is about as far away to Salt Lake City as Redmond is to Bend, OR. So not a 100% match, but it's a decent approximation and when seeing prices almost doubled it is abnormal enough for more investigation. (Alas I am just on a road trip not doing a full price survey).
Computers can scan prices listed online, but prices in store can be different. Now an added complication is that stores use dynamic pricing. I suspect the abnormally high prices in Redmond, OR might be due to this. It also might be distortions from government policy differences between the two states.
Sustained dramatic price deltas create opportunities for arbitrage creating more black market economies. Like someone could load up on meat in Utah, haul ass across the desert to sell it in Oregon. At a decent scale that would be sizable profit motive.
Both are in cattle ranching communities, both close to airports and we'll traveled freight train routes.
Getting IRL price checks keeps stores more honest because otherwise the black market can compete. It's sad we stopped getting that data. It was problematic but this was a throw the baby out with the bathwater situation. It was consistent and educated analysis could come from it even if it was purposefully convoluted in the front facing report.
Right, but now that you've said "black market," I'm curious about how you're using the term and how your former employer (who I assume was the government) used the term. To me, a black market is just nature healing. But when most people say it, their butts pucker and their eyes go round.
Maybe the place with the expensive sandwiches was richer than the other place.
Or maybe that town had a meat packing plant and the other didn't. Futures should've smoothed that out, but idk, maybe. Utah is closer to the Mississippi basin than Oregon, which is where we grow most stuff.
I've worked for local city government, who would want to know about black market possibilities in order to better plan how to designs legislation to close the opportunities for them to grow.
I've also worked for private consulting firms, who would want to know about possible business opportunities, because it's not always illegal sometimes it's just moving fast and breaking things.
I also come from folks who always lived in a grey area economically and see this type of opportunity as legit, like you said nature healing. The market will always find equilibrium. I still have kin who run wine from France into Canada via those small French owned islands yo ho yo ho 😅
And yes, all of those points are good to consider. In economics it always depends. It's still too high of a delta to be considered normal. It would need analysis I'm not going to do with data that's not being collected to really knuckle down into.
What is the price of roast beef at your grocery store?