Joshua Galyon
Periods of high inflation are absolutely terrible for most consumers. You probably feel as though almost everything you buy costs more this year than it did last year – and since your employer’s operating costs have gone up as well, your salary probably hasn’t increased to offset your higher cost of living. High inflation is an extremely unpleasant situation for businesses and consumers alike – and apart from seeking higher-paying employment elsewhere, there isn’t typically much that you can do to start getting more for your money.
Although it might sometimes seem like the news in the financial sector is all bad lately, we have a little piece of good news that might help you feel a little better. Even during periods of high inflation, there are some types of products that continue to go down in price due to heavy competition or advances in technology. If you’re in the market for any of these products, right now is actually a great time to save money on them. Let’s dig in!
Computers
The personal computer is an absolutely classic example of a product that does more and costs less with each passing year. A computer that would have cost more than $2,000 just a couple of decades ago would have offered barely a fraction of the computing power of the smartphone you now carry in your pocket. Today, you probably wouldn’t consider spending anywhere near $2,000 on a computer unless you’re a gamer or require a powerful machine for work.
These days, most computers that aren’t designed for the enthusiast crowd are essentially commodities. For just a few hundred dollars, you can buy a computer that lasts all day on a battery charge and offers ample power for any task you’d like to throw at it. As long as you aren’t looking for a professional-caliber component such as a video card or a highly overclockable motherboard, you can get an amazing deal on a computer if you buy one now.
Don’t forget that this statement also applies to used computers. With many people around the world all looking for ways to raise extra money at the same time, used computers are much cheaper right now than they would normally be.
CBD Products
In the world of herbal supplements, CBD has been the undisputed king over the past few years – and prices for CBD products have been extremely high. For a while, there wasn’t enough supply to meet the demand because CBD is a natural product that can’t be made in a lab. It’s extracted from hemp plants, and you have to grow the plants before you can extract the CBD from them. Farmers realized very quickly that hemp was potentially an extremely profitable product to grow, but it took them a while to ramp up production.
Today, there is more than enough hemp to meet the demand for CBD products, and that means products like CBDMD gummies are more affordable than ever. How much further CBD prices can drop remains to be seen; it depends on how efficient the hemp extraction processes can become and how aggressive CBD brands will be in competing with each other. The one certain thing, though, is that CBD prices aren’t affected by inflation and will continue going down in 2022.
Smartphones
The smartphone market is fully mature at this point, and it suffers from many of the same problems as the computer industry. The first problem is that the components are much less expensive to produce than they were in the past. The fact that smartphones cost less to produce means that there are plenty of lower-cost manufacturers who are perfectly willing to sell a virtually equivalent phone to what you’d get from a top-tier manufacturer like Apple or Samsung for a much lower price. The competition creates a great deal of downward price pressure.
The second problem is that the smartphone market is completely saturated. Most of the business comes not from new smartphone owners but from existing owners who are upgrading their old devices. During periods of heavy inflation, many people will decide to continue using their existing smartphones instead of buying upgraded models that they don’t really need.
Smartphone manufacturers have been dealing with slow adoption rates for a while, and they’ve propped up their profitability by introducing more upmarket models that they can sell at higher prices. If you’re trying to save money during inflation, though, an upmarket smartphone isn’t what you want. Instead, look at entry-level phones. Today’s entry-level phones are essentially equal to premium devices from a year or two ago, and they’re cheap enough that they practically feel free.
Although today’s entry-level smartphones are incredible products for the price, there are some people out there who are buying the upmarket models because they can’t resist the lure of a shiny new gadget. They’re selling their old phones at incredibly low prices, so it’s always worthwhile to check the used market if you’re looking for a deal.
Hotel Rooms
During times of heavy inflation, people everywhere begin tightening their belts – and many people decide during those times that traveling no longer feels quite as essential as it did when times were good. That’s especially true in 2022. Hotels suffered during the COVID lockdowns of 2020, and they made up for that difficult period by raising prices to unprecedented levels in 2021. Buoyed by stimulus checks and a pent-up desire to get out of the house, consumers paid the higher prices, and hotel room inventory remained extremely low in many cities throughout the year.
Now that inflation has begun to seriously cut into people’s entertainment budgets, it has become increasingly difficult for hotels to continue charging the same unbelievably high prices in 2022 that they did in 2021. Unsold rooms are much more common than they were last year – and if the hotels in your area haven’t begun cutting their rates yet, they will soon. If you have a little extra money and want to take your family out for a staycation, now is the time to start watching the prices on travel websites. Sooner or later, you’re going to see a price that you can’t pass up.
