Inflation and what condensed tomato soup has to do with it

At first glance, it’s not that special. But it’s just super exciting: first of all, the packaging is legendary, retro in style, yet still cutting-edge. However, design is known to be a matter of taste. Secondly, and now we’re getting to the heart of the matter:

Since 1890, a can of Campbell’s tomato soup has held exactly the same amount of soup. What does that mean? Well, this can of tomato soup is probably the only product in the world that has existed for so long and has never changed the amount it contains.
Sure, the packaging has been adapted over the centuries to conform to various marketing and legal requirements. The amount of tomato soup in the can, however, has always remained the same. And now we’re getting to the heart of the matter: this product can make inflation visible like no other.

And that’s why a recent Campbell’s press release made headlines: the price of the famous tomato soup is going up again. A can now costs exactly one US dollar on average. However, it gets interesting when you look at the price trend of a can of tomato soup over time. Until the 1970s, a can usually cost 10 cents.

Here’s the price development of tomato soup since 1895 in a chart: (The currency is the US dollar)

Inflation is a topic of conversation in the USA. Because some things are much more expensive than they were a year ago. For example, the price of city hotels in America has more than doubled in some cases. This is understandable, however, as the USA had an almost nationwide lockdown, meaning that tourists and businesspeople could no longer enter the country. But petrol and rental prices have also risen rapidly within the last year.

Here’s an interesting example: rents in the desert city of Phoenix have risen a whopping 14 percent in one year. So where are things headed? Even if inflation “only” hits 4 to 5 percent this year (as forecast by the US authorities), this price hike is making many US citizens pensive and, of course, causing them to wonder how they can protect themselves from inflation.

Bloomberg reports on rising rental prices in the USA:

Single-family home rental prices in the U.S. jumped 6.6% in May from a year earlier https://t.co/PQnO48zEY8

— Bloomberg (@business) July 22, 2021

Sources:

• • The Money GPS: The Economic Shift People Are NOT Ready For!
  • Political Calculation: Absence of Discounts Confirms Tomato Soup Inflation – 20. Juli 2021
  • With profits dropping, Campbell’s decides to raise prices
  • Campbell Soup&Co Earnings Call