Kicker - Dollar Store inflation

NICK EICHER, HOST: Now, we need to wait for definitive word on this from our in-house economist David Bahnsen, but here are a couple of economic indicators that may have gotten by even him.

Number one: supply-chain problems plaguing The Dollar Store.

The Wall Street Journal once marveled at the business model …

AUDIO: It’s a retailer that can make a lotta money selling very cheap goods to a relatively small number of people.

Well, now those very cheap goods aren’t so cheap.

And now Dollar Tree stores—where everything goes for a dollar—is offering those very cheap goods for a buck-25 or a buck-50.

You know, Dollar and a Half Tree just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Economic indicator number two: the housing market. It’s really a hot market.

So hot that a real-estate listing in a town just north of Boston—Melrose, Massachusetts—it’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but it’s going for $400,000.

So what, right? Well, here’s the kicker.

In August, the house caught fire.

The front is totally charred to the roofline, the front windows boarded up because the blaze blew them out, firefighters had to rip down walls and ceilings to put out the fire.

The listing says: “House is in need of a complete renovation or potential tear down and rebuild. Buyer to do due diligence. House being sold as is.”

400K. That’s a hot housing market.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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