Yeah but think of how cheap TVs that you don't need are.

Inflation is underreported. They say it's 3% annually when it's actually 4% annually, so they can get away with it more easily if they only give you a nominal 3% pay increase.

They're doing this by throwing food in the basket together with TVs and consumer electronics.

Since consumer electronics get cheaper constantly, that lowers the amount of total inflation. But food costs increase more than the total inflation. And that's what we should actually consider as the "proper" inflation, since it defines our cost of living increase.

When I worked there in the late 90s, a Big Mac MEAL was 3.14 after tax.

I worked in Drivethrough checkout a lot and a lot of those prices are burned into my mind, half the time I was not near the register when taking orders and giving totals when it was slow.