More Marukai sadness

I went to the 98 cent store yesterday, even though I'm still upset. I was hoping maybe they already changed their minds about the price increase. I may have to start calling it something else, because there are fewer and fewer things for 98 cents and more things for $1.25 and $1.50. I probably wouldn't have gone at all, but I needed raw supplies for a birthday present I'm working on. $15 and one small bag later I left feeling ripped off. Most of my purchases were food, I've been lacking Japanese/Korean snacks in my diet.

Unlike my January trip, the store did get new things that they are charging over 98 cents for. This way I don't feel completely ripped off. But adding more expensive things changes the whole dynamic of the store. I don't go there because I want good stuff, I go to see what kind of crap i can pick up for 98 cents that people might like.

Here's a selective list of changes. There are plenty more :(

They brought in a bunch of new ceramic things and a whole aisle of weird wooden things that i can't figure a use for and that is all over 98 cents

they raised the price of socks, hello kitty merchandise, key chains and many school supplies to 1.25

the jones soda is still 98 cents but they raised the price of the jones juice.

in an interesting move, they've seemed to stop carrying the 3/98 cup noodles and instead are carrying a wide variety of instant ramen noodles from between .98 and 1.50. This is bad for my bland American palate, since I can't read most of the packages and they look scary.

I can no longer get the 98 cent panko, It's a good think I'm winding down with my deep frying.
Stupid Marukai. I can only hope this will fail, like it did last time. It's all any of us can do. It's a good thing there are plenty of other places to buy imported goods.