Sensationalist Economics Reporting in Morning Brew

Writing for Morning Brew, Matty Merritt covered “luxury butter.” According to the author: “With grocery item costs up everywhere, even $10 butter feels like a reasonable little treat.” I live in an expensive area of Brooklyn, New York City (even by the general standards of Brooklyn) and I would have to put effort into spending $10 on butter. Let it be said that $10 butter does not strike me as a “reasonable little treat.” Similarly, he writes about $15 pints of ice cream (I just bout a 46 oz tub of Turkey Hill Simply Natural ice cream at a local grocery store for $5) and $30 frozen yogurt (spending $30 on frozen yogurt is the result of frightening levels of Instagram and TikTok usage). It is one thing to write about some people spending like drunken sailors who spend too much time on social media, but another to segue into a suggestion that it is a default state of affairs.

$5 sale. Nice. I like the Simply Natural line from Turkey Hill.

(In contrast, I will note that egg prices were legitimately loony in late 2024-early 2025 after the Feds killed all the chickens, albeit even then I was able to find somewhat reasonable prices at one of my favorite fruit and vegetable marts.)

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