Want to track real inflation at the supermarket? Forget complex indices. There's one item that's been sitting on shelves, virtually unchanged, for over a century.

Campbell's Tomato Soup. 128 years. Same recipe, same can, same product.

While everything else morphs—portions shrink, ingredients swap, brands disappear—this red can stays constant. It's the closest thing we have to a pure inflation gauge. No substitution bias. No quality adjustments. Just price changes over time.

Think about it: what other consumer product has maintained that level of consistency since 1897? Not much. Which makes it weirdly perfect for measuring how much your dollar has actually lost in purchasing power.

Sometimes the simplest benchmarks tell the most honest story.