Alarming Food Prices

[olbriar]

It seems to me that inflation is alive and well in the food industry. I thought it might be interesting to track the increases in foods until we all starve for lack of buying power.

Today I did a bit of shopping at my local market. On my list was ground beef. I was shocked when I saw the 85% lean that I wanted was $7.99 per pound. There was a row of 96% lean that was $9.99 per pound! It seems like it was just last week that the burger I wanted was $6.99 and a couple of months ago $3.99. We are in trouble my friends.

Post your recent jaw dropping shopping experience so we can all cry together.

 

[Dannydet]

I agree. Groceries that used to total $80 is now double that. It gets to a point of what can we do without for the week.

 

[treb1797]

All potato chips have just gotten completely ridiculous and the bags have less chips than ever before.

 

[AugieTN]

Something I've noticed is items that have taken a huge jump, I will not buy and obviously other people have done the same thing. In a few weeks the item will be buy 1 get 1 free.

It actually shows capitalism working. if the price is too high and people are not buying it, they have to lower the price.

We have all seen the same thing happen with gas. If the price goes to high people don't drive as much and the price comes down

 

[olbriar]

Shortage of a product often sees an increase in price. I'm not seeing a shortage of goods at my market. I'm just seeing a 100% or more increase in prices. Every item is seeing an increase but meats seems to riding high on the inflation curve. $40 dollars for a couple of decent ribeye steaks for an example. I didn't look at the price per pound but I'm not paying twenty bucks for steak. Next week the steak might be thirty bucks... perhaps I should be investing now.

 

[Dannydet]

Well let's add the alarming price of cars in the US, next. If the UAW gets their way.
They will single handedly bankrupt Ford, GM and Stellantis within 5 years.

 

[Hadron]

Here in the UK overall inflation has been high (higher than in the US), but food price inflation has been running well ahead of the overall rate. And the prices for basic foods have risen more than food overall as well, so if you are someone who can only afford the cheapest products you've been facing the highest rates of inflation while being the person least able to afford them.

Funnily enough the profits of the big supermarket chains, who dominate the food market, have taken no hit at all from inflation and in many cases have risen. Naturally government refuses to accept that there may be any profiteering because that would be awkward and might force them to actually do something, which goes against their ideology.

 

[ocnbrze]

so i went to costco and the meats were as high as i have seen it. for 4 ribeye steaks, costco was selling them at $60-$75.....which is just crazy. i did find some NY steaks going for $45 for 4 steaks......so i bought those. i was really craving for ribeye, but those NY steaks were not bad.

 

[olbriar]

so i went to costco and the meats were as high as i have seen it. for 4 ribeye steaks, costco was selling them at $60-$75.....which is just crazy. i did find some NY steaks going for $45 for 4 steaks......so i bought those. i was really craving for ribeye, but those NY steaks were not bad.

It's not like we are running out of cows. What's the deal?

 

[IbrahimXXX]

It seems to me that soon regular food will only be available to a select few, and regular people will be forced to buy "fodder". It will be cheap and nutritious. Except that life expectancy will be reduced by 50 years. That's the picture I saw when I was in central Africa. There they sold only cheap canned food in the stores made of fish I don't understand. And it didn't even look like fish. It was just like a thick mass. (We asked the guide to show us the real Africa where people survive every day, not tourist routes).
By "soon" it doesn't mean it's coming in a year or five years. But it's bound to happen.
Food will become more and more expensive. It will become more and more problematic to buy them.
It is even scary to imagine that "bright future" for my future grandchildren, for example.

 

[ozonetrooper]

My birthday is coming up and while at the store the other day I though about buying some ice cream. My fav is Blue Bell rocky road, not this year, it was priced at 8 dollars and some odd cents for a half gallon ! ! ! !

 

[ozonetrooper]

I usually get the Nolan Ryan 3 pak of rib-eye steaks. Just last year they cost 30 dollars a pack, today they are up to $45.00 a package and nothing has changed about the amount, the packaging, or the place I buy them at.

And it has already been pointed out there is no shortage of cows ...

 

[Dannydet]

This is eerily similar to the movie "Soylent Green" from the 70s, where a carton of strawberries cost $150 dollars.

 

[AugieTN]

Syfy channel had a series called Incorporated, where corporations eliminated government and ran the country. A bottle of clean water was $7

 

[olbriar]

My buddy buys prime ribeye roast from Costco and cuts his own steaks. He is my age (old as dirt) and doesn't want a pound steak anymore. By cutting his own he says he can cut a thick cut steak and then cut it into meal size steaks with no waste. I did a quick Costco search and their prime roast is running $25 a pound... basically $300 a roast. The roast doesn't come at a savings but when you factor in the custom cuts without waste, it's something to consider.

Buying meat right now is likely a better investment than any stock or precious metal. If it continues to increase in price at the current rate, you could double your money in less than sixty days. The very worst scenario, a complete monetary collapse, you could always eat your investment. Stocks and precious metals will need a lot of seasoning.

 

[olbriar]

 

[mikedt]

I've seen similar price lists in the UK from the 60s and 70s.

What was the typical take home wage in the US in 1971?

 

[AugieTN]

What was the typical take home wage in the US in 1971?

Minimum wage in 1971 was $1.60 an hour - $64 a week - $3328 a year. Also in 1971 President Nixon ordered a wage and price freeze to control inflation.

 

[ozonetrooper]

Milk appears to be the only thing to not have succumb to the price of the times, today WIC approved is less than 3 dollars a gallon.


'course Nick said I could have his gallon ....

 

[Hadron]

This is eerily similar to the movie "Soylent Green" from the 70s, where a carton of strawberries cost $150 dollars.

Based on Harry Harrison's uncharacteristically grim novel "Make Room, Make Room", which contained no plot about the "secret" of soylent green (which was just what the name implied, a soya and lentil basic foodstuff that was all most people could get), just a story about life in an overpopulated USA where a gilded few could have what they wanted and everyone else made do on subsistence rations, no space, no privacy and no hope.

 

[ozonetrooper]

just a story about life in an overpopulated USA where a gilded few could have what they wanted and everyone else made do on subsistence rations, no space, no privacy and no hope.

Twisted Metal is a cool movie, homeboy makes a treacherous run from one city to another to deliver a quart of ice cream to a gilded person, he had no clue he risked his life, for ice cream ...

 

[olbriar]

 

[ozonetrooper]

 

[treb1797]

I love when they raise the price and then put the yellow low price tags out. Kroger gonna Kroger.

 

[olbriar]

Low Price.. uh, lower than what? Lower than a new BMW