quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Sorry man, I wasn't trying to insult you at all. I apologize here for that line.

I do think there is gouging being done by some but I don't think it's grocery stores. If anyone could be accused of this, I'd call out McDonald's whose prices have gotten ludicrous.

Since there is not one single Healthy item on a McDonald's menu I would consider it helpful if they set prices high enough that a reasonable person would decide to shop elsewhere.

I had to go get items for dinner last night and I can tell which vendors are pricing themselves into bankruptcy as I refuse to pay into their "inflation" excuse.

MANY items were up over 50% in the past year alone along with overnight increases on the "best economy ever" announcement from the clown with a microphone.


The frozen items I used to take for lunch went from $1.79 to $4.00. Fuck them.

I can go to Publix Deli across the street and get a meat and two veggies with a roll for $5.89.

I am not defending any of these price increases, but I think a lot of you really do not understand the full extent of what is going on here and how everything is being passed on to us, the end consumer.

I read somewhere in the past year or two that steel used in cans like soup cans had quadrupled in price or something and that’s why you see prices going up on that, not even the ingredients just the container.

My brother-in-law owns three local restaurants, and I went to him one summer two years ago asking about these giant baker potatoes that you see in restaurants, the type you see when you go to like a barbecue place where it’s stuffed with pulled pork. You really can’t find these size potatoes in the supermarket, I asked him to get me some through his supplier and he said they went from $10 a case to $90(!!!) a case for him. Fryer oil also went from something like $5 a gallon to $30-$40 a gallon.

Anyone who has watched the The Martian with Matt Damon will get the reference: "Fuck You Inflation"

On Saturdays I'm usually up by 5:30-6 to hit the local Krogers and Sprouts by 8am or so. This morning a young Kroger's lady was marking down coffee in front of me and got some marked down eggs. At Sprouts I'm on the hunt for the yellow stickers on grass-fed chuck roast. Snagged some thick cut bacon 35% off. There's not a lot I will buy that's not a mard-down anymore. Discount sourdough is nice but I can live without it. Even discount items have gone up but the "early bird" strategy usually pays off.

I don't know prices for individual products. But my average weekly grocery bill has gone from $150 to $250-300 over the past few years. My salary is increasing at a much slower rate than living expenses.

One can look at the financials of any publicly traded company.

Take Kroger as a company. Their NET profit is right around 2 percent and has been close to that for about the last 4 years.

IMHO Grocery store chains are not price gouging. I am sure their expenses have skyrocketed also during the inflationary period including labor, transportation, maintenance/repairs/upgrades, insurance, utilities, property taxes, lease, license/etc fees, cost to finance inventory with higher interest rates plus shrink from theft due to decriminalizing shoplifting in many "progressive" areas.

Are some of the prices shocking in the grocery stores? Sure , but that is no evidence of them price gouging overall. It is an EXTREMELY competitive business.

Other chains that also sell groceries (Target, Walmart, etc) may have higher net margins but that would be expected as they have heavy general merchandise sections with clothing and such where the margins are quite a but higher.

Politicians love to blame "price gouging" for inflation to take the blame off of themselves. That does not mean there may not be exceptions to some companies that may be doing some of what is considered price gouging. I think that some beverage companies might be coming close to that.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/KR/financials

quote:

Originally posted by SigSentry:
On Saturdays I'm usually up by 5:30-6 to hit the local Krogers and Sprouts by 8am or so. This morning a young Kroger's lady was marking down coffee in front of me and got some marked down eggs. At Sprouts I'm on the hunt for the yellow stickers on grass-fed chuck roast. Snagged some thick cut bacon 35% off. There's not a lot I will buy that's not a mard-down anymore. Discount sourdough is nice but I can live without it. Even discount items have gone up but the "early bird" strategy usually pays off.

Being retired I shop during the week and always check the store ads on Tuesday for the discount items that week that start on Wednesday.

The trick is to get in while the selection is the biggest and I've been pretty lucky that my shopping receipt usually shows at least 40%+ savings over marked prices. The largest discounts on what they call Digital Coupons which you need to download their app to take advantage of...worth it when you can get the $6 item for les than $2. It's like couponing without having to cut them out or sort through them during checkout

^yep, and gotta check the receipt to confirm the eCoupons. I can get 3-4 meals out of a 3lb chuck roast. And at 2.99/lb with the digital savings! In general, you wouldn't think inflation is affecting a lot of folks with the crap I see in people's carts and all the store workers filling orders for pick-up/delivery. I probably have bar soap and VO5 shampoo for 6-8 months. Although not retired, I'm keen on my burn-rate as if I were. Good practice for later. I've cooked every meal for 4 years and just toss those Carl's Jr. Coupons now. Being a child of the 70s, I suppose frugality is in my bones. "TURN OFF THE DAMN LIGHT".

Food prices getting out of hand is clearly evident to me as well. One of the perks of my job is my employer covers the first $10 of the cost of my lunch at the facility cafeteria. When I started there a few years ago, I usually used about 1/2 my $10 credit for my lunch. Now it is not unusual for the same lunch for the bill to exceed the $10 limit and to pay additionally for the full cost. ( usually a dollar or less which I happily pay.)
Some might look at a “free lunch “ as a small potatoes benefit, but that adds up to over 2 grand in a year. I am currently considering an offer from a competitor and as crazy as it sounds, that “free lunch” being lost is one of my considerations!
My VFW post runs a weekly Friday night dinner, and we have been struggling to keep the price attractive and still turn a small profit, using all volunteers for labor. We just negotiated a contract with a food wholesaler to help bring costs down a little bit.

They just gut renovated the cafeteria where I work and it went from horribly outdated 1985 chic to this 2020's beautiful blues and grays and white and a sort of retro-future look, it's really nice.

It's also completely deserted most of the time because the cafeteria foodservice contractor charges an arm and a leg for frankly very mediocre food. When they first opened, I got an egg salad sandwich (which had MAYBE 2 Tbs of actual egg salad), chips and a drink. $12.75

Most people learn quickly to pack a lunch or go offsite for one of many local choices.

The cafeteria at my workplace is top notch! Our cooks do a terrific job, and you could easily mistake the main course offerings for the best restaurant in town. We even have a wood fire pizza oven. Easily the best “hospital food” I have ever had, and I have been on staff at a dozen or so over the years. Our administrator, who works primarily at our other “bigger/ better” location even admitted he makes a point of eating at our location because the food is so good!

Kroger and others in this area pre and post pandemic used to price frozen hash brown potatoes at $1.69-1.79 for a 30 oz. bag. Today that same 30 oz. bag is $3.99 even at Aldi.

Healthy food prices have jumped astronomically, I’ve been on a restricted diet since the 1990’s and between the price increases and in many cases the dwindling availability of the same items it’s getting harder and harder to shop.

And if I hear Janet Yellin say the word “transitory” once more I’m going to vomit.

Workplace cafeterias? I've seen some really nice ones. People are so freeking spoiled,if you don't have breakfast and lunch provided they have a fit. I'm a blue collar guy and I understand companies giving perks to good employees but what's next? manicures and massages?
Our plant manager for Christmas went to Walmart
and bought a day old meat and cheese tray and everyone had to bring a side dish or dessert.
I never took a bite, well the nice lady in the office made great cheescake but that was it.

Zero Hedge article:

A recent TikTok video has gone viral, showing a user’s surprising experience with Walmart’s grocery prices. The user explained in his video that he tried to use the “Reorder All” button for an order he placed two years ago, which originally cost $126.67. To his shock, the same order would now cost $414.39

That is crazy. My poor wife is really struggling trying to keep her grocery budget from exploding, she's a stay at home mom and our kids are really starting to eat a lot more as they get older. We chose to make it work on my salary alone so she can homeschool the kids but these price increases are really starting to make an impact.

^^^^^ Last week I was buying groceries and saw a woman with 3 kids tagging along.

Her cart was totally full and I just smiled and said wow you're buying a lot of groceries today.

I didn't mean anything by that, but she just started crying. She said with 5 kids total and her husband they had to put 21 plates on the table every day, he made good money, but they had to keep increasing their grocery budget and they were squeezed with car payments/lease payments, house payments etc etc etc.

I felt really embarrassed and felt so sorry for her. It was her "job" to do the grocery shopping and keep everything in budget, utilities are going up especially electric.

I didn't know what to say. I just nodded and went with it and finally wished her well and mentioned you might consider getting a Costco executive membership and with the savings and money back yearly she'd more than pay for the membership cost and get a nice refund check from Costco.

I'm ok financially, live prudently etc, and it just breaks my heart to witness people struggling and having an extremely difficult time holding it all together.

"Eff" those bastards in congress and such who have created such a mess to affect us Americans. You KNOW what I'm talking about.
.

Yes, shopping for 7 is a tactical challenge for most that takes every method and resource. For young families it's got to be tough. There were a metric shiton of coupons in our life in early years, and some less than gourmet meals.

I missed the original rant about the small local, convenient store. To that......

I get that it's frustrating how much some things have gone up, and there's some hatin' on the man for making a profit in mega stores.

My perspective is borne of a opening this week of a small local owned grocery store 1 mile from our planned retirement home. Next nearest is 8 miles, next "real" town with stores is 30.

I will pay them whatever the hell they want for the convenience of shopping there and not having to figure out how to avoid a trip by leveraging DG and Texaco. I'll tip the baggers if they have them. Hell, I'll send the owners and personal Christmas gift and card!

I have a close friend running a small neighborhood hardware store. His prices are generally 150-200% Home Depot 12 miles away. Nobody gives a single shit. Oh, and he is far from getting rich off this life passion.

With most products, price is demand elastic; that is, the higher the price, demand will decrease because fewer people will buy at that price. Drugs, especially the illegal kind, is inelastic as price can increase exponentially with little drop in demand.

For regular product, there is an optimal price point that maximizes total profit. Anything less than that price point increases per unit profit but decreases total quantity sold so total profit decreases. Lowering the price below the optimal point increases total volume sold but decreases per unit profit and total profit decreases below the maximum potential profit. This optimal point is where marginal revenue = marginal cost.

Under any circumstances, companies will charge at the optimum price point. And as the equation points out, only when the marginal cost change will the price point change. If the prior marginal cost was $50, then the prior price would have been $100. If the marginal cost increased by 10% to make it $55, then the new optimal price becomes $110. The math says not only do they have to pass the 10% cost increase, they also have to increase their gross margin by 10%.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

Last week I was buying groceries and saw a woman with 3 kids tagging along.

Her cart was totally full and I just smiled and said wow you're buying a lot of groceries today.

I didn't mean anything by that, but she just started crying. She said with 5 kids total and her husband they had to put 21 plates on the table every day, he made good money, but they had to keep increasing their grocery budget and they were squeezed with car payments/lease payments, house payments etc etc etc.

I was in line for an attended register at Walmart, in third place. Active customer checking out was a black man with his young son. There was a bit of a delay while the customer and the cashier moved some of the items aside.

Unfortunately, I was not paying attention, and was too slow realizing what was going on. As the man and his son left the line with only some of the items, I realized that he had not been able to pay for all of them and had to leave some behind. No junk food, everything in his cart appeared to be basic nutritional stuff.

I hustled (as much as an 80+ Old Guy with a bad hip can hustle) out to the parking lot, intending to find him and pay for the groceries that he had to leave behind, but I was too slow; he and his son had gotten into their car (older Honda Civic) and were pulling away. I wish I had been faster. He gave me the impression of being a hard worker, trying to make ends meet.

Nearly everything grocery has gone up, but one of the most apparent increases for me has been with cat food.
From $3.99 a bag to $7.29 a bag. No boutique brand involved, just Friskies.
I can fend for myself. The cat cant!

The craziest thing I saw on YouTube this week which admittedly is a high bar was a guy who took his Walmart history, went back two years, and showed his groceries that cost $125 would cost $420 using the reorder all feature. I remember when I was in college, I could buy a Subway footlong or a little Caesars pizza for less than one hour of minimum wage. Today, I could not buy either one of those for less than an hour of minimum wage. A grande frappe at Starbucks is more than an hour of minimum wage. I don’t think there’s much more to blame than unadulterated greed; companies are posting record profits and paying people less than what they need to live.