What has happened to the CPI over the past year? Over the past 3 years? Over the past 10 years? What has the rate of inflation been over those time periods? If you select "Include graphs" at the top and then click on "Go", a graph of the data will appear. Are there time periods in that graph when the CPI is decreasing or is the CPI always increasing over that time period? Are there any relatively large declines in the CPI? What does this mean happened to prices in the United States?

For the wax burning company, Sentsy, how does a relatively slow increase in the CPI affect the choices it makes? If the CPI increases at a much more rapid rate, how might those decisions be affected? Will different decisions need to be made, or do those decisions just need to be made more often? What if the CPI declines significantly or over an extended period of time? Think about both the output and inputs of Sentsy.