Scampi, I remember once reading, used to be very expensive. In the 1950s, ordering scampi in a restaurant was a really swanky thing to do. To contemporary ears, the word would have the same connotations that lobster and champagne do today. It feels a bit incongruous, like Princess Grace having a cheese ploughman’s at her wedding breakfast. But there it is: scampi was a prized and pricey luxury.
So what happened to it? Did it somehow get much less delicious, but still basically palatable, so restaurateurs concluded that they couldn’t charge top dollar for it any more and it became the basket-borne bar snack of the 1970s and beyond? Obviously not. It just got more plentiful and so cheaper. Because of fishing or farming or freezers, I suppose, it was suddenly possible to dish out millions more plates of it, so it lost its cachet and ceased to be a luxury item.
Those who make or sell all the overpriced crap have decided to put prices up because they know people will pay them
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