Cheap is dead.

Having vented my spleen time and again about the PLCB price structure, in all honesty I must now report that, on a brief trip to IL last week, I found that most of the wines that I looked at in my favorite wine store had risen to levels identical to what they're selling for here. Now IL is a special case, all imports come through a Chicago consortium, affectionately known as The Mafia, and those nice folks might just have decided to put on the squeeze. But, from what I'm able to find out on line, I suspect that the price hikes are a national phenomenon. My simple brain has difficulty in comprehending why prices are shooting upward while the economy is tanking (I believe this is called stagflation) but perhaps some of you have the key to this puzzle.