09:55 – I don’t know why, but I’m still surprised every time I buy components. So much for government inflation figures. The sodium bicarbonate tablets cost 50% more than they did when I ordered them a year ago. The purple Sharpies were up more than 20% in less than six months. The 9V batteries were up more than 8% since I ordered them a year ago. My guess is that the real inflation figure, like the real unemployment figure, is at least three times higher than the government admits to.
Of course, inflation is actually a hidden tax on monetary assets. It penalizes the prudent and the creditors, and rewards the imprudent and the debtors. And it eventually makes the prudent and the creditors decide to transfer their assets to tangible property instead of fiat currency. Which is why I’m happy that I have, for example, almost a thousand test tube racks in stock. The real value of the money I used to buy those has been decreasing every week, while the real value of those test tube racks remains the same. So, a year from now, that $4 test tube rack will sell for $5 or whatever.
Once the autumn rush has tapered off, I’m seriously thinking about bringing up a shopping cart system. I actually installed Zen Cart a couple of years ago, but I’ve never had time to enable it. Until now, about 99% of our sales have been packaged kits, but we’re starting to get more requests from people who want to order just specific components.