Great-Uncle Charlie and grocery prices

Great-Uncle Charlie at the grocery store.

Last year, my Great-Uncle Charlie died at the age of 100. During the last few years of his life, he used to tell me tales of his boyhood. "My mother used to send me down to the corner grocery store with two dollars," he said. "I'd come back with a five-pound bag of potatoes, a loaf of bread, a quart of milk, a pound of cheese, a pound of coffee, eight ounces of tea, and a dozen eggs. But you can't do that any more." "Yeah," I said. "Prices have gone way up because of inflation." "Nope," he said. "It's because of all those God-damn security cameras."