From Rents To Haircuts, Americans Start To Feel Price Hikes

[Purveyor]

Jul 28, 12:57 PM (ET)
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apartment rents are up. So are prices for restaurant meals, haircuts, gym memberships and a cup of coffee.

For American consumers who have become used to flat or even falling prices for several years, an unfamiliar sight has emerged in many corners of the economy: Inflation is ticking up.

The price increases remain modest. And in many cases, they're canceled out by price declines for other items that are keeping overall inflation historically low.

Yet the stepped-up price tags for a range of consumer items are the largest since the Great Recession ended six years ago. They actually reflect a healthier economy: Many businesses have finally grown confident enough to pass their own higher costs on to consumers without fear of losing customers. Employers have added nearly 5.6 million jobs the past two years, allowing more people to absorb higher prices.

Signs of emergent inflation are a key reason the Federal Reserve, which is meeting this week, will likely raise interest rates from record lows later this year. Inflation has long trailed the Fed's 2 percent target rate but is on track to return to that level in coming months.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150728/us--consumer_prices_tick_up-944e984978.html

[djean111]

1. Yes, the two hair salons in the shopping strip closest to me closed.

Evidently they, and their customers, did not get the word that we are in a recovery.

[villager]

2. Their problem is they weren't cutting enough 1% hair!

Or they didn't have bootstraps to pull themselves up by!

Dammit!

[djean111]

3. More true than you know - one of them started out charging $70 - Bwahahaha!

Maybe they thought being close to Publix would help. Then they dropped the price down to $40, then they left. The other one sort of surprised me - it was one of the Cuts'R'Us-type places. Been there forever. But very few customers lately.
My next door neighbor used to cut hair in NYC and made a lot of money. Moved down here to be closer to his kids, started out 5 or 6 years ago with a lot of good-paying weekly clientele. That sort of thing has evaporated, He holds down two or three jobs at a time now.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. They nice thing about being a guy

Is that I slip a #3 guide on the trimmers and go to town. I grab the small trimmers and do sideburns and around the ears, then call the wife to do the neckline.

[Mnemosyne]

4. You know damn well they needed to weave their own bootstraps from hair. nt

[oldandhappy]

5. Rents in my area took a leap.

Ordinary housing up $200 a month in one jump. Recent hair cut was the same price. Gas moving up. Am expecting sharp increase in water prices -- I am in CA. And food.

[Hydra]

6. I've watched prices more or less double in my area for almost everything over the last 5 years

It's a scary trend, and it's not stopping.

[greymattermom]

7. Haircuts are optional

My daughter cuts my hair for free. Looks the same as when I paid $50.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Were they awake?

Have they not paid attention while grocery shopping? Prices haven't been flat since 2000, and they haven't gotten better the last six years.

[KT2000]

10. Falling prices?

Other than gasoline that is something I have missed. What I am seeing is 10% increases in insurance (car and home); TV service; phone' electricity; garbage; real estate taxes;and many food items.

[raccoon]

11. What planet doth this writer live on? I haven't noticed falling prices. nt