The Butt Rapin' Businessmen of Grant County, Oregon

My parents live in John Day, Oregon. Population, about 1600, give or take.

They've been there since August, 1971.
A few months before I turned 11.

One of my first memories of John Day was my mother's exclamation as we drove past the (then) only gas station in town.

"THIRTY FIVE NINE?!?!"

Apparently that was much higher than they'd been paying in our former home of La Grande. She was aghast at the price there. Until we went to the grocery store for the first time.

I don't remember prices. But I remember her gasping as she looked at the prices on the various things we needed to keep the family fed. I had two little brothers then, Jim turned 8 that fall and Steve turned 3 about a month before that. I remember her horror at the prices quite well.

The excuse the local merchants gave back then was that it "costs more" to ship items into town. They were in the middle of nowhere, you see. All that hay to feed the horsies who brought the merchandise, I guess.

I don't know what things were like then, but I know that's a load of crap now. However, the local businesses are still using the same tired excuse for their ridiculous price gouging. ALL of the businesses there charge higher prices than anywhere else I've been with the exception of the time I had to buy tampons in Mitchell, Oregon.

Back in about 1990, when Bob was visiting, we all trooped over to John Day for a few days. I went to Chester's, the store that purchases the radio spots so someone can sing their little song... "How do you keep your food costs down? By shopping Chester's Market!! The saving-est place in town!" and bought ingredients for tacos for 5 adults and a little guy.
$30.00.
That's an awful lot of money even now, almost 30 years later, for a package of hamburger, some taco shells, lettuce, cheese and sour cream.

Here's another example for you.

I visited my parents last summer and went to Mosier's, the only furniture store in town, to see if my assorted brothers and kids and anyone else interested could come up with a fund to replace the parental oven.

They live in a manufactured home and were still using the original oven that came with it back in 1982. The door was impossible to close right because of a broken hinge. Dad had to go get a knife from the silverware drawer and argue with it every time Mom wanted to use it.

But that wasn't the scary part. This little oven was a wall oven, mounted about three feet off the floor. It was so old that the fiberglass heat blanket was just gone. Deteriorated into nothing. So if one did use the oven, the heat was evident on the OTHER side of the wall, in the living room. I'm not talking about a little warmth, either. The wall was hot to the touch. NOT safe. When I asked Mom about it, she said that they couldn't afford a new one right now, they'd just bought twin beds for their spare room.

The two metal twin beds (with mattresses, not bad ones but definitely not top of the line) that my parents put in the guest room? A little over 900 bucks at Mosier's. I found the exact same bed on Amazon without the mattress for 98 bucks. Free shipping. Those mattresses are not worth $350.00 apiece. Trust me.

There's a difference between making a living and making a killing.

But when you're the ONLY game in the entire county, you can charge whatever you want as long as people are dumb enough to pay it.

The guy at the furniture store was less than helpful about the oven. He blathered on about different sizes and how difficult it was to find ovens to fit in 'those trailers'. He had nothing in stock, would have to special order. And it would be 'around a thousand dollars'. Pretty sure that's his standard price on just about everything.

More on that in a minute.

While I was there I looked at refrigerators, too.

I had looked at a few here in Portland, they ranged in price from about 400 bucks for a simple, not huge, no frills refrigerator with no freezer to around 4 thousand for a stainless steel all the bells and whistles and a partridge in a pear tree big assed combo fridge/freezer that wouldn't fit in their house anyway.

So I had a price range in mind.
The lowest price fridge in the John Day version of a furniture store was a freezerless refrigerator, 18.5 cubic feet. It was over a thousand dollars !!

I may have mentioned this. But there's a difference between making a living and making a killing.

Now, the oven.

The oven door finally fell off about six months ago, leaving my mom without an oven.

I went to Amazon to look at prices, just to get an idea.

Then I read some reviews on Consumer Reports. Did some cursory research, just to get an idea of the different features and possibilities. I was considering getting Matt and Amy on board, possibly my brothers and pooling our money to buy Mom a new oven.

A simple wall oven in the proper size on Amazon was about $450.00. Not cheap, but reasonable. Free delivery, of course. Professional installation was another 50, one of my brother's friends has a business there. So $500.00.

Then my Aunt Sue Ann, Mom's younger sister, sent Mom a check for a new oven. Just because. She's generous that way, she can afford to be. She sent her $750.00.

And my mom went to Mosier's, the only game in town, and told the guy, "Well we found this one on Amazon for about $500.00"

And he told her, "Gee golly, I never heard of that brand!! Why, it would probably be IMPOSSIBLE to ever repair such a thing!! I don't even know where I'd find the parts! But what a coincidence, I can sell you a name brand oven for ONLY ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!"

Or I'm guessing that's how the conversation went.

So my mom, who may be slightly gullible, went, "Oh, okay, why don't you go ahead and order that for me?"

Because in HER mind, it was only going to cost her $250.00 'cause of the check she had.

And he worried her with the idea of repairs. Because of course brand new ovens need repaired all the goddamn time. (picture me rolling my eyes here)

Now you could argue that it's my mom's decision and her money, and you'd be right. I haven't said anything to her about it, I don't have any wish to hurt her feelings and she's doing the best she can.

But there's a difference between making a living and making a killing.

When you own the local grocery store and you can buy a Mercedes for yourself and one for your wife, you may be overcharging for a six-pack. Or a head of lettuce.

I don't know what Mosier drives, but I'll bet he's paying for it out of a bank account that increases in thousand dollar increments.