Now $0.008 cheaper, in October 2015 dollars.

Yeah, it’s this thing again, the kit that lets you slice and microwave your own fat-free and (if you follow the directions) pretty good potato chips. We’ve tried showing you that it really works. We’ve tried using them to bring people together. And last time, in early October, we finally tried just dropping the price. To Five dollars, as we said over and over, which worked like a charm with some of you. Well, we can’t drop that price any more. Fortunately, we don’t have to. Not when we can let a little thing called inflation do the work.

Effectively, it now costs $4.992.

In last month’s dollars, that is. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for non-food and non-energy items rose 0.2% in October 2015. That means our five-dollar Mastrad TopChips Kit really costs, in constant early October 2015 dollars, four-fifths of a cent less…

…more like $4.992.

And keep this in mind: the last four Novembers have been deflationary, by an average of 0.33%. So by the end of this month, your $4.992 purchase will probably be worth - again, in early October dollars - more like $5.009, all for, in constant dollars as of October 2015:

Four freaking dollars and ninety-nine and two-tenths of a cent.

In other words, we’re basically paying you 1.7 cents to make your own chips.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. And we can’t promise our math is completely precise. The point is, here’s one commodity whose price is holding steady in inflationary and deflationary times alike - and you can make potato chips with it. Convinced? Ready to buy the Mastrad TopChips Kit?

And if not, tell us what argument would convince you, beyond just repeating $4.992 over and over. Please. We’re begging you.