College Textbook Prices Have Risen 1,041 Percent Since 1977

NBC News ^ | 08/06/2015 | BEN POPKEN

[P-Marlowe]

The candy bars at Vons are the small ones. They are the 1 oz size and the price is $1.29. When I was a kid they were 5 cents for the one ounce candy bar. That was the deposit on a large coke bottle. I could get a candy bar for every 24 ounce bottle I redeemed and a candy bar for every two 12 ounce bottles. They didn’t have 16 and 32 back then.

I generally pay $5 for a 4 ounce premium bag of 1/4 ounce Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares. That’s $1.25 per ounce.

[FredZarguna]

Ghirardelli squares are not considered a premium candy bar. They're considered specialty candies, which did not exist in mass markets in 1975.

A premium candy bar is a brand name mass market candy that meets certain specs, like a Hershey Bar or a Snickers. A 1.55 oz Hershey Bar averages between 0.89 and 0.99 cents at Walmart to $1.29 in a grocery store. Even if you buy them in an expensive grocery store, they have not increased in price much more than ordinary inflation; they aren't anywhere near the price increase of either tuition or text books.