Pixabay / gingerbreadca
One of the more famous moments from Arrested Development was when matriarch Lucille Bluth played by Jessica Walter (may she rest in peace) revealed she had zero concept whatsoever of what anything costs while talking about bananas. The exact quote was “It’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?” As it turns out, that might be the case in some parts of Alaska.
This viral TikTok video from user shes_a_cop (she’s actually a cop) has been viewed millions of times already. She’s walking around a grocery store in Alaska showing off the astronomical prices of items like Oreos which cost 4-5x more than they do here in Florida and a 24-pack of water which costs 6x more in Alaska than it does at Publix.
I’m not the type of person to get riled up by a TikTok video but these prices are legitimately insane and the world needs to see what’s going on up there. Here’s the original TikTok versions (Part 2 is first and Part 1 is below) and one that someone tweeted so you can choose your preferred medium to watch. Someone in the comments clarifies that this is in a more remote part of Alaska and not Anchorage, as if that makes this any less shocking:
@shes_a_cop Village shopping in Alaska! How do the prices compare?
https://twitter.com/WUTangKids/status/1377606632503382017
That was the Part 2 video. Here’s the first one from way back in 2020 that initially went viral:
@shes_a_cop Shopping trip in Alaska!
Comments range from “I’d be so skinny if I lived there” to “I won’t complain about the prices here anymore” which is all valid feedback. I’d probably be all about hunting and fishing for a large portion of my food if I lived in Alaska.
I wish I could say that I’m the primary shopper in my household and I’m 100% in tune with the price of each and every item at the grocery store but that’s not the case at all. But even my brain is exploding at these prices. That Kraft shredded cheese is $11.69 there, it’s $3.49 here. A frozen pizza there is normally $16.99 but they’re $3.98 nearby at Walmart. She didn’t show it on the video but she stated packets of ramen noodles are TWO DOLLARS EACH.
I could keep going with these price comparisons but you get the point, millions get the point, food prices in Alaska are straight up out of control. That’s more expensive than I remember prices in Iceland which is the most remote place I’ve ever visited. I remember paying close to $25 for a cocktail in Iceland because alcohol was so expensive due to everything having to be imported from other countries and flown to the Arctic Circle which is basically exactly what’s happening in Alaska except I’ve never been to Alaska and never stopped to think about how offensively expensive food is there.