> Prices are collected each month in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments (department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, and other types of stores and service establishments). [...] Prices of most goods and services are obtained by personal visit, telephone call, web, or app collection by the Bureau's trained representatives.
The BLS does document their process in detail on their FAQ [0].
This might not match your experience because your family doesn't shop the same basket of goods the families the BLS surveyed do. There are also regional variations in the prices of goods. Even store prices in the same region vary. All of these variations get averaged out.
The BLS does document their process in detail on their FAQ [0].
This might not match your experience because your family doesn't shop the same basket of goods the families the BLS surveyed do. There are also regional variations in the prices of goods. Even store prices in the same region vary. All of these variations get averaged out.
This is why you can't extrapolate from n=1.
[0] https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm