This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchelor. To Lancaster County, the best county and the best state,

Keystone State. Watching the economy, I'm joined by Jim McTag, my longtime colleague, former Washington

editor of Barron's Magazine, now a novelist in Lancaster County. Lancaster County has good

employment, has lots of retired people with cash, and the weather is moderate.

It is Pennsylvania.

However, there are troubles to see this and that way.

We start with Costco, where Jim attends to shopping to see how people are feeling about their momentary finances.

Jim, the grocery bill has been elevated for more than two years now.

In Costco, do you see lots of heavy shopping for food?

Is there anxiety and anything you can see in the baskets?

Yes, people are going to Costco now because they find that the regular supermarkets are too expensive.

Costco is a warehouse store and you get a discount of about 11%.

So the people who work at Costco tell me it's been steady traffic.

You know, hasn't spiked up or spiked down.

It's been pretty steady.

The grousing I hear at Costco and other grocery stores is about the price of eggs,

which are anywhere from $5.25 a dozen now to I paid $6.25 for jumbo eggs today, which is about 55 cents an egg.

So the goose no longer lays the golden egg, the chicken does.

Do you have people with chickens in their backyards? We do here in Connecticut.

No, no.

We're too sophisticated until you get into farm country.

I know, but at 50 cents an egg, we're looking and making a profit.

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