a $30 t-shirt is already exhorbitant. It better have Unicorn hair woven into it.

I tend to buy my clothes from Old Navy (since I hate paying more than $20 for pants that are going to get ripped up and filthy in the stacks) and yeah, they've gotten shitter as time goes on. I just try to pick up things on sale because that's all that they're worth. (Shirts are a different thing because the ones at Old Navy aren't even substantial enough to wipe your ass with.)

My clothes either cost less than $18 per piece or over $100 per piece. I haven't bought any of the latter in years.

I shop A LOT at Target,and I have noticed this. Back in the Issac Mizrahi for Target days, you could get some really nice, well-crafted, well-cut work clothes there. It is much more hit and miss now. The stuff I bought five years ago from that line still looks fresh and stylish and has held up really well. I am about 2 sizes smaller now than I was when I bought them, so I can't really wear them (grrrr).

OTOH, they have some men's khaki pants that are cheap (

AH! Posting fail. But point made.

Cadbury's creme eggs are like a forth of the size now. Lame.

I have really noticed this with Lands End. Their quality has become so low that I am seriously trying to find an alternative. Shame - before Sears took them over, they were outstanding for the quality of fabric in items like their T-shirts or knit pants. Now they are the same thin cotton that you can get anywhere, a lot of stuff is made with polyester (which was considered an abomination by the old Lands End), and colors/sizes/fit are all over the place. I have returned 3/4 of the items that I have bought over the last two years because of quality issues -- I never had to return stuff before. I am trying to make my years-old Lands End items last as long as possible because I just can't replace them ... :-(

I hate hearing that about Land's End. They were my go-to catalog for many years. I knew Sears would bring them down eventually. What a waste of a perfectly respectable brand. I have a horrid green sweater I bought for $3.99 from the old Land's End on clearance and that thing will live long after I am gone.

This has been going on for a lot longer than just the recent economic downturn.

Hershey bars used to be a nickel.

The Gordon Geckos of the Chicago School think the only purpose of business is to maximize profits. This comes into conflict with the purpose of delivering goods and services. The endpoint of this spiral is selling worthless products hidden behind a brand's now falsified reputation, essentially a swindle and no longer business.

There is an opposite, but equally unhealthy, trend in durable goods: some manufacturers are moving their products into the high end of the market by adding features that only exist as sales points, thereby increasing the price without increasing quality or durability. We're watching one of our manufacturers moving in this direction: attempting to balance falling sales with rising prices. The rationale is that wealthy consumers are the only ones left in some markets, so the competition is for a smaller number of customers with greater spending power. The problem is you can end up shaping a market that has so few customers that most retailers get out of it.