Grocery prices--what are you seeing?

The other day my sister went to get Gatorade for our Dad, and she noticed the 32 oz bottlles are now 28oz, but the price is the same.

I don’t pay too close attention to prices, but here and there I do notice subtle increases in things. Meat is definitely more expensive. I still buy what I want/need.

I'm in Canada and I have noticed prices creeping up. Milk was $5.39 for 4L at the discount store. Dh has milk in his coffee otherwise, we don't drink the stuff. I saw boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a pack of 4 for $15 at a full service store. I bought the bone in, skin off for around $5 or a third of the price. A dozen eggs was $3.07 at WM when I ordered last night.

I have definitely noticed prices increasing. Sometimes it is just a few pennies but other times it is a major jump.

I grumbled last year when the price of eggs went from .45 cents a dozen to .65 cents a dozen. Now they are $1.35 per dozen.

The biggest shocker was a jar of Great Value raspberry jam went from less than $3 per jar to $4.34. I put it right back on the shelf.

I think this inflation will change the way we eat. I will cook basic meals of meat and three (or four to stretch the meat) and will no longer be buying the more expensive items and mostly unnecessary things that will now become an occasional treat instead of being tossed into the cart without a second thought.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to individual prices but my total bill is definitely higher then it was 6 months ago for basically the same items.  I need to make a run to Sam’s Club for meats soon and I’m not looking forward to that.  

I have noticed everything has gone up or the items have gotten smaller. We are buying less or somethings not at all. Bacon used to be a staple now we are not buying it at all (we could eat a pound of bacon in one sitting.) It is frustrating because prices have gone up but my paycheck got smaller this year.

I just know that our grocery list in total costs more than it used to, say pre-COVID. Our groceries sky-rocketed right after COVID because we were always having to buy substitutions for what we normally purchased and we were buying more cleaning products, stuff for the kids to make while home, etc. But then it cooled back down.

But now, we're consistently paying more for basically the same list. We're boring people. We've been using basically the same list for years and years. I used to make a list and know it would cost under $200 unless something special was happening, with some weeks dipping down as low as just under $150. Now I expect it to cost over $200 every single week. And not just over $200, but regularly $220, $230.

The only increases I have seen are

Chips (Simply, smaller bag, higher price so I stock up during sales)

Pure maple syrup ($2 increase)

Eggs ($1 increase)

Produce (no more than 50 cents)

Here chicken has gone back down as well as ground turkey and there are good sales so that is when I stock up.

Milk has stayed the same (Lactaid).

Cheese has gone back down in price as well.

Oh and bacon too. Both pork and turkey.

Everything else is about the same. U am sure there have been small increases because my bill is higher. But not totally noticeable.

ETA: pre covid my weekly bill was $150-200. Now? $200-260.

Prices are definitely increasing here and it seems to be across the board in all areas. Last week I noticed that leeks went from $2.78/bundle of 4 to $2.78/bundle of 2. Yesterday I noticed the lemons, which have been 3/$1 for the small ones, are now 2/$1. Hamburger is up about $2/lb while bacon has become almost as dear as filet mignon. Some brands/stores are as high as $9/lb!  

Good strawberries are my downfall and I finally caved yesterday and bought a 16 oz package of the hydroponic berries.  Normally they are $3.98 but were 'only' $4.98.  I say only because the regular strawberries were the same price.  It was a hard pass on the New Zealand cherries that were $11.99/lb.  

Was telling DH about it last night and he said his friend (who is a financial planner) told him that groceries as a whole are up 15%.  

If only they were being surrendered. In our area there are more obvious house pets being dumped in more affluent neighborhoods. We already had a serious stray animal issue and now this is just adding additional burdens.

I was able to get by with spending $100, now if I'm lucky it's around $150. The other day I double checked my receipt to make sure I didn't double scan anything, I noticed that the big box of Little Debbie's was $4.48 at Walmart when it was normally a little less than $3.50 (The horror)

Here is an article that just came up on the news:

Grocery store prices will probably stay elevated this year, according to economists at Goldman Sachs, continuing a COVID trend that has contributed to the high cost of living.

In a report to clients on Monday night, Goldman Sachs projected the food-at-home category of the consumer price index will increase by another 5% to 6% this year. The Wall Street bank cited a 6% jump in food commodity prices so far this year and "soaring costs" of some farming inputs, including a quintupling of some fertilizer prices.

Grocery prices in the consumer price index have already jumped by 11% over the past two years, the fastest pace since the financial crisis, the bank said.

A perfect storm of bad weather, poor crop yields, tight inventories and strong demand have lifted food commodities nearly 40% over the past two years, Goldman Sachs said.

Food at home prices jumped by 6.5% in December from the year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's the biggest increase since December 2008 and it contributed to the hottest overall rate of inflation in 39 years. In December, there were large price spikes for meat (14.8%), chicken (10.4%), eggs (11.1%) and other items.
Analysts have blamed grocery price increases on the supply chain turmoil, the worker shortage, COVID-19 and other issues. As CNN Business previously reported, Kraft Heinz recently indicated it will hike prices on dozens of products, everything from Oscar Mayer cold cuts and Velveeta cheese to Capri Sun drinks.

But there is uncertainty over where prices go from here.

"We see risks in both directions," Goldman Sachs economists acknowledged.

The bank said price gains could be limited if demand declines due to an expected decline in food and nutrition benefits. On the other hand, grocery prices could go higher as "companies might pass along a greater share of higher input costs when these increases are larger or more durable."


Bold is by me.

Meat has definitely gone up, but overall my weekly shop where we generally buy the same things for two of us have gone from around $100 to $140/50

yes - prices are up on just about everything except cheese which was up and is now about down to what it was. My bill is stasying pretty stable but we're down to 3 people from 4 and I'm shopping more carefully




I know the shelter here has an owner surrender fee (and if you feed a stray for more than, I think 48 or 72 hrs, then it's an owner surrender also). So yes - lots of pet dumping here also

i know there has been a dramatic increase in prices but i was actually shocked to see the price of something go down drastically.  remember when people were complaining about how prices of vanilla extract at Costco almost doubled a couple of years ago?  to almost $30.  now they are back down to $14.99 or thereabouts.  i was really surprised.

for price increases,  the price of beef and pork have really shot up.  chicken prices have climbed less.  eggs have gone up and the sizes are definitely smaller.  the standard two large eggs for baking cookies are smaller these days than they used to be.  i remember when the eggs would almost fill their individual cavities in the clear clamshell and now they are so small that they easily move around in their spot.