“August 8: Gas prices are up sharply again. We saw $3.669-3.719/gallon pretty much everywhere we went…”

“There’s no longer much surprise nor anguish about that,” Liz Arden muttered this morning. “Most of us are all in that dull acceptance stage.”

And that, dear readers, is both the problem and what the retailers count on.

People grumble. People protest. People email plans to each other. Congress holds hearings. And then it becomes the new normal.