Vending Machine Economic Policy

I think the guy that runs the vending machine concession in our office building must have been an Obama Administration economic advisor – part of the group that hung around for the initial year or so and then split. The group that kept talking about the coming “recovery summer.” 

I do break down and buy a soft drink once in a while but don’t patronize the candy machine very often – everything in there tastes good, but of course nothing is good for you. The machines seem pretty well run and all. But today when passing by I noticed a letter from the vending company taped to the candy machine explaining unfortunately, they had to raise their prices on each item “a modest amount.”  Now I did recall that most candy or cracker items in the machine had sold for $0.85 each. The new prices were all $1.00 each. Let’s see, $0.15 increase on an original price of $0.85 is, well, an almost 18% increase in the price. Candy may not be a consumer staple (or if it is, it shouldn’t be) but anyway you bite your Necco Wafer, 18% is a lot. If I had received an 18% salary increase today, I don’t think that “modest” is the descriptor I would be using. In fact, I’d probably have to rescue Mrs. Sponge from the top of our built-in bookcases where she would have leapt due to the shock and awe factor.

Thinking it through, maybe this vending guy was in the Obama Administration’s PR group after he left the economic advisory’s group.