When did all the fun stuff go upscale? (Possible @)

[msmerymac]

I've noticed that even simple summer vacations - a weekend at a shore house or tickets to literally anything - are an extravagance. It's more than inflation too. 


slate.com/business/2023/06/skiing-movie-theaters-casinos-amusement-parks-prices-upscale-leisure-industry.html?via=rss_socialflow_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3o22LdZf3IXM11g4Nspw-UeL9vjD0aD_lRO4oK2BW7jxQWhF8IDIHGKOU

"What’s happening in leisure, hospitality, and some higher-end consumer goods is a little different: Business leaders have simply decided it makes more sense to prioritize fewer, higher-margin transactions than compete for market share, in some cases abandoning their low-price offerings entirely. U.S. automakers, for example, started years ago to prioritize larger, heavier, more expensive vehicles and discontinue smaller, cheaper cars. (The phenomenon is even more pronounced with electric vehicles, where the only low-cost American-made model, the Chevy Bolt, was eliminated by GM in April.) Homebuilders, too, increasingly aim at a higher-end clientele, with the median new home about 40 percent larger than it was a generation ago."

[gretchenindisguise]

@
Yeah - we have definitely noticed. Movies, bowling, the fair - all at least $100 for our family of 4.

We haven't been skiing because it's too expensive.

We used to be able to justify disney, but the increases on those has been astronomical.

[abs]

@

Yeah no kidding. We were going to go bowling last month and went to reserve a lane. For four of us it would have been TWO HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS. So no we didn’t go. An hour at main event earlier this week cost $75. It’s absurd.

[pierogigirl]

@ I signed my kids up for Kids Bowl Free. You still have to rent the shoes, but kids under 15 get 2 free games per day from June-September. My kids think bowling is only OK, so this works for us. They only want to go a couple of times all summer. They do try to upsell you on a family pass every day, which is kind of annoying. I don't do the family pass, so they can bowl for a couple of hours for about $10.

[steamboat185]

I put DD into summer day camp last week pretty last minute. Even though camp was expensive it feels like anytime we leave the house for an activity it costs at least 100 dollars and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything close to the activities from camp. We try to do lots of free activities, but there is only so many times you can visit the library and it doesn’t really compare to a climbing wall.

[wildrice]

This doesn't shock me at all. We've said many times lately "how do people with larger families afford this?" It blows my mind how much we spend each time we go to something like a sporting event, concert, or even out to eat. I priced out going to see a movie recently at a specific time that sounded good, but the only theater available at that time was the one with the fancy seats. Buying 2 tickets and a regular popcorn was going to be $50! It was marginally cheaper to go at a different time and sit in the more basic seats, but I couldn't believe it. We rarely go to the movies anymore and I guess that will continue unless it's something we are really dying to see on the big screen.

Concessions are out of control in general. At the most recent concert we went to, a beer was $18. I think most places we've been in the last year or two have only been slightly cheaper than that. It honestly takes some of the fun out of it all. We technically can afford those prices at the rate we do things (i.e. we are only going to stuff like this a handful of times a year, not weekly) but it kills my frugal brain to hand over almost $40 for a round of drinks that aren't even what I'd choose if I was at an actual bar with more options. I know an option is just skipping concessions, but when you can't even bring in a bottle of water, that's kind of hard to do entirely (and also less fun!).

[dutchgirl678]

@

The $200 bowling is insane. We have used the Kids Bowl Free last year but we did get sucked in to the family pass and I think we went twice the whole summer.

The last time we went to a movie was in December and the popcorn was $10!

We used to have zoo memberships and it was $120 for a family membership and $160 to bring two guests. I think a single adult ticket used to be $15. This was before Covid and I know they lost a lot of revenue. I just checked yesterday and adults (over 12 counts and no senior discount) is $24! The membership is $160 for a family or $293 if you want to bring 2 guests. Needless to say we are not getting another membership there.

[gretchenindisguise]

Oh yeah. And baseball games - we haven't been to one in years.

[abs]

For whoever said concessions—yes. A bottle of Dasani water at Minute Maid Park is like $8. It’s half that at Disney World!! When you are out charging Disney you have problems.

We usually go to 5-6 baseball games a season. This year it has been 2. It’s just so much money.

[rubytue]

The car thing is so true. I like small hatchbacks. They are almost impossible to find in the US if you want anything besides an econobox. But, in my one trip to Europe, they were all over the place. If it too much to want a small car that doesn’t feel like it will fall apart when you roll down the window (and yes, one car I looked at was still manual windows).

But, sometimes I think it’s related to the US obsession with visible wealth. Expensive, designer handbags are one example.

[formerlyak]

DH and I make good money. Like no where near middle class on that calculator that was posted a few weeks ago and about 2.5 times the median income for our area. That info is for context.

We have really been wondering how some people we know are affording all the extravagant and not extravagant outings. Because we feel like after saving for retirement and college tuition since our oldest will be a senior this year, we can’t afford it all. Then they complain about their debt and we know how they are “affording” it. It seems so many people continue to do all the things to keep up with the Joneses, so businesses feel that they can continue charging these insane prices. People are willing to pay.

We have been sticking to the beach (free by us), national parks (annual pass is still only $80 and several in driving distance) and museums. Luckily in LA we have tons of museums, many free or very low cost.

[estrellita]

This is why we never do anything! Sports, movies, theme parks, everything is insane! I wanted to book a vacation this summer but there's no way. Just H and I would have been way more than I expected. Even if we did a short road trip or something in state. Hotels are so crazy expensive! We absolutely wouldn't have done Disney if my parents hadn't paid for most of it. There's no way we're going back for a LONG time if we're paying (for several reasons, but the cost is probably the biggest).

@@
I remember doing so many things as a kid. Mini golf, movies, local theme parks, baseball games, zoo, etc. We traveled a lot (my dad is retired from an airline job) but even on those trips we did quite a few things. I'm sad that we haven't been able to do that as much with our kids. Partially because this tiny town has limited options, but even with a little bit of a drive, activities are just too much to do them more than occasionally. *insert rant about 2 full time workers feeling just barely "comfortable" while my mom stayed home until I was 5, then worked part time, and we still did all that stuff, etc*

[estrellita]

formerlyak That reminds me, my parents often reminded us that some of our neighbors seemed like they did more and had more, but they were maxing out credit cards and in a ton of debt. Thankfully minimizing debt has been very ingrained in me, so that also is a reason we don't do more.

[bears]

Hotel prices have gone crazy in the past few years. We're doing two 3 night stays in smaller cities, made reservations way in advance, and the hotels are not high end...price is over $1k for each stay.

We went to the carnival and spent $64 on rides for two.

The one blessing we have is that our local ballpark allows you to take in sealed water. That saves me around $20 each game!

[wanderingback]

This is how I somewhat justify living in a hcol haha. Probably doesn’t make sense, but I could probably spend zero dollars on entertainment for the rest of my life because there are so many free things that happen here on a daily basis. Museums, concerts, sports, classes, etc. Plus there’s public transportation so if you want to go out to the suburbs for other entertainment or the beach for the day, etc, you can get there. At least that’s how I justify paying $5300 in rent per month haha.

[StrawberryBlondie]

We looked into going bowling after going to a birthday party at a bowling alley and it would've cost us nearly $100.


Granted, this was a bougie bowling alley, but still. This was just bowling - no food, no beverage, nothing but a lane, shoes, and bowling balls.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oh! And we are going to the local high school summer theater production. Tickets are $15 each! I know that's not actually a huge expense but it shouldn't cost nearly $50 for the 3 of us to go to a high school play.

[melissa]

It has gotten ridiculous lately as far as the cost of events.

I did see an ad recently for a get out pass which is a one time cost for a list of activities in your general area. I'm still not sure it is worth it but if you want to check it out the website is: getoutpass.com

[basilosaurus]

I remember a couple threads about the van gogh immersive thing and how tickets were so much. For somethng that's actually pretty small and quick. I managed to see it in Singapore, one of the most epensive cities in the world, and it was about $20 for tourists, less for residents. It was cool, and if you can't make it to Amsterdam, probably pretty incredible even if the portraits are weird light up things that blink. But I still think I paid too much, and I think that's less than what I remember others posting.

How much of some of these ticket prices growing so much is due to cities and states slashing budgets? Kinda like state universities growing increasingly out of reach. I'm thinking zoos, aquariums, museums, things that might have been subsidized as tourist attractions and as benefits for residents.

[tacokick]

I think it’s hard to pin down. In some ways, yes but in other ways, no.

Like I remember buying a CD for $16-20 in 1997 and buying an album on ITunes is still that. I was going to concerts at the 9:30 Club in the 90s and the ticket price would be $20-50 and they are still in that range 30 years later. That doesn’t make sense to me.

I think the artificially low prices of Amazon and cheap fast fashion has sort of warped expectations of prices in general. I can buy clothes more cheaply now that I did in college.

Hotels have gone up a lot lately but until fairly recently I was paying about what we did on trips we took when we first got married in 2005 to the same places. That didn’t make sense to me either.

I think that things people thought of as luxuries years ago (yearly vacations, flights, paying for food delivery, kids sports, restaurant meals, home internet) have become more standard for everyone.

We have more demands on our money for things that have now become necessities like smart phones and high speed internet. That’s a major bill added to everyone’s expenses that just wasn’t there even 20 years ago.

I think a major issue is that wages have really stagnated, workers rights are deteriorating, the minimum wage is a joke and we don’t have the buying power we had before but are still living as if we do.

The car thing is frustrating and we can blame the boomers and their “starter house” fixation for the some of the giant houses.

Local governments aren’t funding public things like zoos, parks and museums the way they were so prices go up there too.

Anyway, I think a lot of our current lifestyles are built on systems that don’t actually make money or sense and it’s catching up to us all at once.

Virtually no streaming service actually makes money, Air BnB, Uber etc just barely has started making money. Everything is online but no one has successfully monetized the internet for any sustained period of time but now it’s all we have. That issue is going to leak into everything.

In short, I blame Reagan for everything.

[msmerymac]

Jul 17, 2023 9:41:19 GMT -5 wildrice said:

This doesn't shock me at all. We've said many times lately "how do people with larger families afford this?" It blows my mind how much we spend each time we go to something like a sporting event, concert, or even out to eat. I priced out going to see a movie recently at a specific time that sounded good, but the only theater available at that time was the one with the fancy seats. Buying 2 tickets and a regular popcorn was going to be $50! It was marginally cheaper to go at a different time and sit in the more basic seats, but I couldn't believe it. We rarely go to the movies anymore and I guess that will continue unless it's something we are really dying to see on the big screen.

Concessions are out of control in general. At the most recent concert we went to, a beer was $18. I think most places we've been in the last year or two have only been slightly cheaper than that. It honestly takes some of the fun out of it all. We technically can afford those prices at the rate we do things (i.e. we are only going to stuff like this a handful of times a year, not weekly) but it kills my frugal brain to hand over almost $40 for a round of drinks that aren't even what I'd choose if I was at an actual bar with more options. I know an option is just skipping concessions, but when you can't even bring in a bottle of water, that's kind of hard to do entirely (and also less fun!).

I was at a baseball game last summer and if you wanted a Michelada, you could buy whatever beer you wanted and THEN buy the cup with the michelada mix, so it was probably like $26. And yeah, going out for dinner or drinks or events or whatever is half the fun!

[msmerymac]

@@@

Not to be THAT person, but I'm considering buying some Six Flags park passes/parking/food tickets/water park for a family of 5 as a gift. It would be like $90 per person. When I was in high school, I went to Lilith Fair '98 at the concert venue attached to this particular Six Flags and paid $36 for my concert ticket, which I *think* included the extra charge for all-day park admission before the show, lol.

[Jalapeñomel]

I have no idea how people afford to do things on the weekend. We go to the park and the condo pool, and that’s really it. Otherwise, it’s like $100 just to walk in the door.

[litebright]

I keep meaning to do a day at an amusement park with my kids (Hershey or Kings Dominion) and the ticket prices have made me balk. And then you have to account for parking and food/drink (not a food package, just incidental food during the day). And that's not even with any of the fancy add-ons like line priority.

Even something like doing a local river float in tubes--no guides, a rented tube & life jacket and a short bus ride--is $35-$45 per person, depending on whether you go on a weekday vs. weekend.

[icedcoffee]

Everything is crazy. Mini golf was my latest shock. I think we paid close to $50 for the 4 of us.

I did recently have a "woah that's cheap moment". The rides at Funland in Rehoboth. There were several that cost only about $1 each to ride. I was all "rides for everyone!" with that one!

[pixy0stix]

Last time we had Wendy's the bill was over $40. They've raised the prices to accommodate increased wages/inflation and not cut into their profits. Which is what is happening in all industries. They want to keep making record profits off of us without taking a hit themselves.

Welcome to late stage capitalism - we all hate it here.

[eddy]

@
We paid $100 to play mini golf on vacation. And it was a lame ass mini golf course. WTF

It is hard as I feel the clock ticking as my oldest is a sophmore. I don't have many more years that he is in my house and we can do things like travel easily. But the fucking costs are just astronomical right now. And they have been like this for a couple years. We just got back from a trip to Colorado and it was amazing. Full of memories and something that is increadibly important to me as a parent. Going on these trips together is really precious. But I DO NOT want to look at my credit card bill to see how much we went over our budget despite trying to control costs. Ugh lol

[waverly]

@@@@

I grew up in rural lower to mid middle class. Until about age 13, we did not eat out maybe once every 3 months and we did not attend events. For 1 thing there were no events within driving distance unless we wanted to drive at least an hour. My parents stayed within their budget. We camped every summer for family vacation and this meant staying at the campground no tourist outings, and my grandparents paid for us to go to Florida to visit them every winter. I did dance once a week, girl scouts, and piano one year. No majorly expensive sports.

Nowadays, I live in a middle to HCOL suburban area. 99% of people are constantly posting pictures of their activities and vacations. No one is ever home and constantly going to activities whether it is club sports, rec sports, museum, zoo, family activities more more more. Being busy is a badge of honor. I don't have an issue being busy. But, I also love just chilling at home and doing nothing and that is very much outside the cultural norm in our area. We don't do a ton of activities, but if we do it adds up to $100 a pop pretty much immediately.

I think the fact that people post it is the visual wealth thing. But I think that they either feel pressure to constantly entertain themselves and their kids because kids can be annoying constantly at home and not busy, but what I've found is that if others are constantly trying to entertain themselves also then the kids don't have anyone to play with because the family is gone all summer. I've noticed it is more pronounced in the summer as people travel more. So we have some neighbors who are around and the kids are available to play and others that low key ghost us until September again.

[simpsongal]

Jul 17, 2023 8:04:55 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I've noticed that even simple summer vacations - a weekend at a shore house or tickets to literally anything - are an extravagance. It's more than inflation too. 


slate.com/business/2023/06/skiing-movie-theaters-casinos-amusement-parks-prices-upscale-leisure-industry.html?via=rss_socialflow_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3o22LdZf3IXM11g4Nspw-UeL9vjD0aD_lRO4oK2BW7jxQWhF8IDIHGKOU

"What’s happening in leisure, hospitality, and some higher-end consumer goods is a little different: Business leaders have simply decided it makes more sense to prioritize fewer, higher-margin transactions than compete for market share, in some cases abandoning their low-price offerings entirely. U.S. automakers, for example, started years ago to prioritize larger, heavier, more expensive vehicles and discontinue smaller, cheaper cars. (The phenomenon is even more pronounced with electric vehicles, where the only low-cost American-made model, the Chevy Bolt, was eliminated by GM in April.) Homebuilders, too, increasingly aim at a higher-end clientele, with the median new home about 40 percent larger than it was a generation ago."

We've been talking about this w/cars and houses.  I think zoning and tax incentives for essentials may need to enter in and play a larger role.  Much like local ordinances and policies to discourage purely investor-owned housing. 

We couldn't believe the average price for a car when we bought this spring.  We bought a Ford, and if I recall correctly, DH confirmed they literally don't make a sedan any more.  

As for entertainment, it is crazy $$$.

@  We went out to a mid-range restaurant last night for dinner, 3/4 of us got burgers (one is a little kid) and the bill w/tip was $120.  

[basilosaurus]

Jul 17, 2023 10:32:37 GMT -5 tacokick said:

In short, I blame Reagan for everything.

Always the correct answer