the cost of doing business

Try as I may, I can fill the basket to the brim with every last whimsical thing I'd like to eat (whether I can read the labels and know what it is or not), I can grab as many vegetables as I can carry, stuff as much milk and yogurt up my sleeves as will fit, I just cannot manage spend more than $30 at the local grocery store. I swear I've tried, but shit is so beyond cheap here. A damn litre of beer is only a couple bucks. Beat that. This is like when the old folks talk about the 'good ol' days' where such-and-such only used to cost 30 cents.

Well, not everything. Toilet paper is almost two bucks a roll. There's no forestry industry to speak of here, so no trees. I've been telling myself the fact that it's imported justifies the price.