Small price increases more common than decreases, impacting consumer wallets.
Researchers found that small price increases happen more often than small price decreases in retail prices up to 10¢, known as asymmetric price adjustment "in the small". This pattern persists even when inflation is taken into account, suggesting other factors are at play. The asymmetry remains even when excluding inflation periods and for products with no price increases. This trend holds across different measures of inflation and after considering past price adjustments.