New York City, the Bowery. Photo by Berenice Abbott
Just spend a while looking at those prices. Now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator, 30¢ in 1935 would be worth $5.09 today. Where could you get three large pork chops for that price? Certainly not even in my sleepy little town in southern Utah. No, I suspect the BLS has either not factored in the brutality of the depression, or its numbers are somewhat skewed in general.
♫ The Bow’ry, the Bow’ry!
They say such things,
And they do strange things
On the Bow’ry! The Bow’ry!
I’ll never go there anymore! ♫
by Charles H. Hoyt and Percy Gaunt
From the Broadway play A Trip to Chinatown (1891)
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 
Inflation is an uneven process. It works kind of the way growth works on a baby. An adult’s head is double the size of a baby’s head, but our arms and legs are several times the size of a baby’s limbs. Food is pretty cheap in the US, as you know from your time overseas. I’m betting that it has not appreciated as much as services have.
Or whatever. What do I know, after all?