Disguising Price Increases(No Politics Please)

[Tormahto]

The cheapest I have seen black beans in years around here was $1.29/lb, and recently the rest of the beans were going up, some well over $2/lb. That's why I haven't renewed my supply of a few of them - I don't need them that badly! The different lentils in the Indian markets changed from 8 to 7 lb bags, at the same price - still only $7.99, so not bad.

That's a very good price for red or yellow lentils. The reds are about 50% higher than the brown/green ones, here. I can't even find yellow lentils. Perhaps Whole Foods? I don't even want to think about their prices.

[Tormahto]

Well, I was right about the eggs and potatoes, both doubling in price in less than 6 months. Eggs are now 3.74 a dozen, all types of potatoes are 4.99 for a 5 lb bag. The one low price on potatoes is 10 lbs of russets for 6.99, pricing them in all of the local stores.

There is one local grower who farms hundreds of acres scattered around the region. But, with this year's drought, I have no idea what kind, if any, harvest he had. I should know in about a month if his potatoes will be stocked locally, and if it will bring prices down, or not.

Still, at $1 a pound, it's not something to complain about. Rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, carrots, onions, etc...all inexpensive foods that I happen to like. I'll take those over an extremely pricey cut of beef with little flavor.

[worth1]

The roma tomatoes at the store looked like a herd of wild hogs came running through.
Beat up and mashed .
I did as I always do and gathered from the boxes below.
People don't even see that they are there.

[Tormahto]

The roma tomatoes at the store looked like a herd of wild hogs came running through.
Beat up and mashed .
I did as I always do and gathered from the boxes below.
People don't even see that they are there.

With fresh produce, here, there are no boxes below. What you see out in the open is what you get. All of the boxes are out back.

In a couple of the local stores, the employees are constantly looking through the "pick your own" produce, while replenishing what is low. Things with slight blemishes are put in small bags, and go to the discount rack. That's where I buy a few perfectly ripe bananas at .29/lb, and the rarely bought perfectly ripe winter tomato at .99/lb. I severely doubt that I'll be seeing 5 lb bags of potatoes for $1 there, again.

Buyer beware, expect more culls in bags of onions, potatoes, carrots, oranges, etc...as producers aim to cut their costs (labor and waste), and increase their profit margins (sometimes just to survive to the next harvest).

[worth1]

I still can't get over a young lady with an 8 ounce piece of meat for $20 saying that's not to bad.
Really, 40 dollars a pound.

[Tormahto]

I still can't get over a young lady with an 8 ounce piece of meat for $20 saying that's not to bad.
Really, 40 dollars a pound.

It's all relative. Maybe she previously bought Wagyu.

[karstopography]

Potato prices are up here too. I see many more potatoes in 3# bags these days, I don’t remember potatoes coming in 3# bags. $3 something for a bag of potatoes, that doesn’t sound so bad until you realize it isn’t the typical 5# bag. That’s the craziness of shopping these days, trying to stay on top of packaging changes.

[Tormahto]

Potato prices are up here too. I see many more potatoes in 3# bags these days, I don’t remember potatoes coming in 3# bags. $3 something for a bag of potatoes, that doesn’t sound so bad until you realize it isn’t the typical 5# bag. That’s the craziness of shopping these days, trying to stay on top of packaging changes.

It means more math for me. I built a lot of recipes around previous sizes of produce. I know that 5 pounds of potatoes, a dozen large eggs, a couple of medium Vidalia onions, mayo, and the rest, makes a 1 gallon container of potato egg salad.

I hope they don't mess with the 1 lb bags of beans. 6 lbs of beans, a pound of bacon, a few onions, molasses, brown sugar and the rest, fills my two beans pots right to the inner rim.

[worth1]

It's unbelievable what the difference is between store brand dried beans and name brand dried beans.
The same with rice and pasta.
Sometimes as much as 3 times the price..

[Tormahto]

It's unbelievable what the difference is between store brand dried beans and name brand dried beans.
The same with rice and pasta.
Sometimes as much as 3 times the price..

I doubt that you've seen the ultra high end Italian imported pasta usually found only in a big expensive city. I've seen stuff that goes for close to $11, and it's only 250 gm. That would make it about 40 times what I've paid for pasta about a month ago.

From what I'm hearing, and a bit of what I'm seeing, some store brands are now being priced up and equal to the name brands. Previously, name brands simply weren't selling, and every shopper could see it. And, with the store brands often sold out, and people waiting for them to be restocked, there were no sales of any product. Now, with the same price, whatever is on the shelf gets bought, regardless of brand.

[worth1]

It's unbelievable what the difference is between store brand dried beans and name brand dried beans.
The same with rice and pasta.
Sometimes as much as 3 times the price..

I doubt that you've seen the ultra high end Italian imported pasta usually found only in a big expensive city. I've seen stuff that goes for close to $11, and it's only 250 gm. That would make it about 40 times what I've paid for pasta about a month ago.

From what I'm hearing, and a bit of what I'm seeing, some store brands are now being priced up and equal to the name brands. Previously, name brands simply weren't selling, and every shopper could see it. And, with the store brands often sold out, and people waiting for them to be restocked, there were no sales of any product. Now, with the same price, whatever is on the shell gets bought, regardless of brand.

I left out the artisan stuff because its ridiculously priced.
I don't add them ino the comparison because of it.
You have no idea what an HEB plus store is or their sister stores in Austin called Central Market.

[Tormahto]

I know several people (online), all preferring HEB to WalMart. They are just food shopping, and don't want to deal with all of the extra customers that come with the WM experience. All claim that HEB store brand is better than WM store brand. No such HEB stores up here. The first Aldis is coming to my town, soon. I read up on them, and have my quarters and my own shopping bags ready.

Brand mostly doesn't mean anything to me, as I generally shop for the lowest price. Crackers are about the only things that I spend extra on. The quality of name brands (Ritz, Zesta, Keebler, etc...) are much superior (at times) to store brands. The store brands never had much quality control (underbaked, overbaked). Even the name brands are starting to lose some of their quality, as very slightly underbaked products saves time and money. Perhaps it's finally time to start baking my own.

[bower]

Well the pricing at my store yesterday was mostly a good story for a change.
Having an eye on fruit for the xmas fruitcake, which sometimes goes on special this time of year. Yep it was all marked down, except for the cherries which are up a solid $2. All of the fruit and molasses for the cake came in at under $30, that is as good as I can hope for.
The sack of unbleached flour I always buy was down, regular price went back to normal! Wow. One of those. And the light olive oil I use for baking, was a dollar off at $6 for 750 ml. I already got brown sugar on special last time I shopped, so I'm pretty much ready for xmas.
Coffee was also on special at $15 the 950 g (short kilo!) instead of $18, so I got two of those.
I hadn't planned to buy meat, but 6.49/kg for a bulk pack of chicken thighs was too good to pass up. In recent times, 'sale' prices on meat have rarely budged below the 'regular' price $11/kg it has been for years it seems, on most things.
Milk and eggs are up, the eggs are $5 a dozen now but I will buy em of course no matter the price, and there was no sign of a cheese war, so I let those lie, still got some in the freezer. Overall I was glad that I got some value for my dollar.

[Tormahto]

Well the pricing at my store yesterday was mostly a good story for a change.
Having an eye on fruit for the xmas fruitcake, which sometimes goes on special this time of year. Yep it was all marked down, except for the cherries which are up a solid $2. All of the fruit and molasses for the cake came in at under $30, that is as good as I can hope for.
The sack of unbleached flour I always buy was down, regular price went back to normal! Wow. One of those. And the light olive oil I use for baking, was a dollar off at $6 for 750 ml. I already got brown sugar on special last time I shopped, so I'm pretty much ready for xmas.
Coffee was also on special at $15 the 950 g (short kilo!) instead of $18, so I got two of those.
I hadn't planned to buy meat, but 6.49/kg for a bulk pack of chicken thighs was too good to pass up. In recent times, 'sale' prices on meat have rarely budged below the 'regular' price $11/kg it has been for years it seems, on most things.
Milk and eggs are up, the eggs are $5 a dozen now but I will buy em of course no matter the price, and there was no sign of a cheese war, so I let those lie, still got some in the freezer. Overall I was glad that I got some value for my dollar.

I assume those were bone-in skin-on chicken thighs. Boneless skinless, here, goes for what you are paying. I'm basically buying only 10 pound bags of leg quarters now, at .77/lb, which are 50% less than any other chicken parts in any store. One quick cut before freezing, and I have drumsticks and thighs.

[worth1]

I saw a small jar of foo foo pasta sauce for 10 dollars.
Maybe a pint.
At least I don't have to by it and I make my own anyway.

[bower]

@Tormato our prices here are probably the highest in Canada. Don't forget that is in CAD, not exactly worth a bundle these days! at 75 cents USD. But still it will be more than anyone would pay on the continent.
Even though the chicken I buy is strictly local product, feed is imported. Chicken feed is... not chicken feed.
My friend had some meat birds at her farm one summer, and in spite of all the 'free' vegetable feed like buggy napa cabbage (which they loved) it still worked out to $20 a bird for the organic feed alone. Nice big chickens but still... that's a lot.
Another reason for my interest in growing grains...

[Tormahto]

@Tormato our prices here are probably the highest in Canada. Don't forget that is in CAD, not exactly worth a bundle these days! at 75 cents USD. But still it will be more than anyone would pay on the continent.
Even though the chicken I buy is strictly local product, feed is imported. Chicken feed is... not chicken feed.
My friend had some meat birds at her farm one summer, and in spite of all the 'free' vegetable feed like buggy napa cabbage (which they loved) it still worked out to $20 a bird for the organic feed alone. Nice big chickens but still... that's a lot.
Another reason for my interest in growing grains...

$20 a bird is also what I'm hearing from a few hobby growers here in the US.

I lucked out at WalMart today, as I usually don't shop on Fridays. They had a huge amount of boneless skinless chicken breast (expiration date today) on sale at $1.39 a pound. I guessed perfectly that I could squeeze five 5 pound plus packages into the freezer. The past several months have been like a roller coaster for chicken breast supply...out of stock, too much, out of stock, too much, again and again and again. I'm not even a fan of that cut, I like just about any other, better. But, my eye is trained to see those yellow reduced price stickers even out of the back of my head.

[GoDawgs]

I bake most all of the bread products here so I buy flour in 25 lb bags at Sam's. We go "Samming" about every three months. I prefer the bread flour but will buy the AP if the other is out. The flour was 8.25 (.33/lb) in May '21 and has steadily gone up. This month it was 11.88 (.47/lb) for the same bag, a 44% increase. It might not be long before the 5lb bags in the grocery will be the same price per pound when on sale as Sam's flour.

[Tormahto]

I bake most all of the bread products here so I buy flour in 25 lb bags at Sam's. We go "Samming" about every three months. I prefer the bread flour but will buy the AP if the other is out. The flour was 8.25 (.33/lb) in May '21 and has steadily gone up. This month it was 11.88 (.47/lb) for the same bag, a 44% increase. It might not be long before the 5lb bags in the grocery will be the same price per pound when on sale as Sam's flour.

At my local WalMart, the 5 lb bags of Great Value AP flour, bleached or unbleached, are under .44/lb, but up from .31/lb several months ago.

I have noticed that many GV items have disappeared (perhaps permanently?). In order for pricey name-brand items to sell, the GV and other lower priced products have to be out of stock.

[pepperhead212]

Dollar Tree - we've seen this size decreasing happen a lot there, probably more than anywhere else, since prices aren't increasing, any more than that initial 25% increase. This is something I get there, that some of you also probably get there cheaper than anywhere else: Hydrogen Peroxide. Funny thing is, I didn't really need any more, but I noticed that they only had 3 of the 32 oz containers, but a bunch of some much smaller, 8 oz containers. So I bought the last 3 large containers - I might do the same at the one in my town - I know they will be gone, eventually, and only 8 oz containers - talk about a ripoff! I thought I'd tell you guys about this, in case any of you use this, and buy it there, and your Dollar Trees still have the large ones.