Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Studios/ TikTok/@sellitlikelyons
Topics: Film and TV, Food and Drink, Shopping, US News
Kit Roberts
Topics: Film and TV, Food and Drink, Shopping, US News
With Christmas once again just around the corner, many people might be dusting off their VHS of Home Alone for the festive season, or more likely just streaming it.
It's now been 33 years since the iconic movie starring Macaulay Culkin first hit the screens.
The movie might be best known for the sadistic Saw-style traps set for bungling burglars Harry and Marv, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
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But now one scene has come back to light, and one aspect of it in particular.
A lot has changed since 1990, when the story took place. This is a time when The Simpsons could afford a large family home on a single average income, and that was normal.
If that doesn't give you a clue about which Home Alone scene this is, it's where our hero/sociopath heads to the supermarket to pick up some supplies, and specifically how much that would now cost.
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READ MORE:
HOME ALONE FANS SHOCKED AFTER REALIZING AGE OF KEVIN'S MOM
MACAULAY CULKIN RETURNS TO HOME ALONE HOUSE
We're not talking an insane spending spree here, just regular things you might find around the house, and a treat.
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The shopping list for Kevin's trip to the supermarket consists of: a TV dinner, a loaf of bread, frozen mac and cheese, cling film, half a gallon of milk, half a gallon of orange juice, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and some toy army soldiers.
So, general groceries, not even a weekly shop, and a little treat.
After Kevin presents a dollar coupon, the total in the film comes to $19.83.
Adjusted only for inflation and nothing else, in 2023 that comes to about $46.68, according to a US inflation calculator.
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Except, when TikTok user Geoffrey Lyons actually went out and priced up the items on the shopping list it did not come to $19.83, or even $46.68.
He goes through the shopping list, saying: "What does that come down to? The grand total of $63.73. Add on tax - $5.25 - and put it together, you get $68.99."
Take off the dollar coupon and you get just under $68 or just under 3.5 times the price, for exactly the same groceries.
People were, of course, left speechless by the cost.
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One wrote: "I bet the cashiers wage is still the same in 2023," while another posted: "Plus it wouldn't be a $1 off coupon now, it would be 50¢ off."
A third wrote: "$100 bill is the new $20 bill."
A combination of rising costs and stagnating wages is leaving increasing numbers of Americans barely able to scrape by, let alone save.
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Younger people are disproportionately impacted by this, being at the mercy of increasingly difficult rental markets and, as this Home Alone experiment shows, basic necessities becoming more expensive.
You could always become a burglar, though you would risk being brained by an iron and having your head set on fire by Jigsaw Junior.