The Fleece
Nowadays there’s a lot of talk about how the cost of fuel is increasing the cost of everything else. I agree. But I also think it’s definitely an opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the situation. Does anyone think for a second that these companies will lower prices when the price of oil comes down again? For example, take the tomato crisis. McDonald’s valiantly declared that it would stop using tomatoes for the sake of its customers but they didn’t lower prices. We’re still paying for the tomatoes while they’re not. Now when they do re-introduce tomatoes, they get to negotiate with their tomato suppliers who’ll probably want to unload all the tomatoes they can. Will McDonald’s pass those savings on? When airlines raise prices for everything from, buying a ticket online (remember how this was supposed to save them money and therefore us money?), adding a surcharge for checking in baggage, and making a captive audience pay for food and drink, will those prices go down when fuel prices decrease? I think we all know the answer to that.
