Not Everything’s More Expensive.
I happened to be in the supermarket today, and as I was meandering down one of the aisles, I noticed calculators for sale. They were shrink-wrapped against cardboard and were hanging on hooks muck like sets of six cheap pens. I took a closer look, and saw that these particular calculators were fancy enough to use for trigonometry.
I checked out the price and was floored by what I saw. The price was $6.99. Holy crap!
I remember when I was in college in the sixties, Texas Instruments had launched a personal electronic calculator. My parents bought me one for my birthday. It was about six inches long and three inches wide. The part of the calculator that displayed the numbers (in red) was probably an inch thick. It could add, subtract, multiply and divide. That was it. I recall that it cost my parents something like $70.00, which in today’s dollars would probably something like $140.00.
I suppose that, on some level, I was aware that prices have dropped dramatically on things electronic, but I confess that I had no idea that one could buy a powerful hand-held calculator for seven damned dollars — in a farookin’ supermarket, yet.
Go figure.
Think you may have dropped a decade for the electronic pocket calculator. I’ll sell you my HP-35 in slightly used condition
for 1/2 price! ($414 w tax)
Comment by JimBob — May 14, 2006 @ 4:42 am
The first one I remember seeing was in 1972 or 73. It sold for around a $100 in the Base Exchange and would add, subtract, mulitply, devide, and figure square root. I don’t remember the brand name.Bowman or Bowen, or sumthin like that.
Comment by GUYK — May 14, 2006 @ 12:32 pm