I'm with you, but others do notice. I know several people who will off-handedly comment on small increases in produce prices. Likewise with items moving on/of

I'm with you, but others do notice. I know several people who will off-handedly comment on small increases in produce prices. Likewise with items moving on/off the dollar menu at fast food places. If there are 4 people in your family, that's an extra $4 at least, which is ~30 minutes of minimum wage, or about 1.25% of a week's pay before taxes. I'm not going to try to guess what portion of that hypothetical family's income is expendable, but if it's 1.25% of their total weekly earnings then it's probably a much higher percentage of their weekly disposable income. If you've got $40 a week left over as disposable income, an extra $4 starts to seem like a lot more. In an economy where most people can't cover a surprise $200 bill, $4 means something to a lot of people.