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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.

Comte de Sats Germain 4mo ago

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.

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Kip Ashlynn 4mo ago

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?