Grocery Prices

Where does he shop? I saw that Walmart recently lowered prices.

www.foodandwine.com/walmart-cutting-prices-on-7000-items-8697877

I don't think prices would go down 1/3 and that quickly and before a candidate got into office.

I was grocery shopping on Tuesday and spent about what I always spend.

My grocery receipts from two days ago look just about the same as they have the last several weeks, at least. The only grocery deals I managed to get this week were by combining a few Circle deals at Target.

I saved $15 because I spent $100 in total, but within that $100, I made sure that $50 worth of product was health & beauty related, which saved me an additional $10. I also used a Circle coupon and got my regular 5% off. That's the first time I've been able to say I was happy buying grocery items in awhile.

The thing is, I don’t believe it’s the retailers that are really doing the most gouging. I think it’s the big food conglomerate corporations that are taking the most advantage. We don’t need to look any further than the year end corporate profits and CEO wages for companies like General Mills, Nestle and Tyson which have been raking in record profits. Here’s a good article I found.

civileats.com/2023/05/22/food-prices-are-still-high-what-role-do-corporate-profits-play/#:~:text=Food%20corporations%20are%20thriving.,3%20percent%20to%20%2446%20billion.

From the article I linked:

What I bolded above is part of why it’s so important who ends up on our Supreme Court. The current right wing majority have made rulings that have weakened consumer protections and increased corporate power and influence. If things don’t change at the SC, the general population will continue to get screwed over.

And Harris is NOT Walmarts candidate for sure - so they wouldn't be doing it to make her look good. They may be seeing their sales dropping like a rock and are trying to get that stopped.

I have tracked prices even before Covid. It helped me to see patterns on when items are best price and when to stock up as well as when an item was truly on sale.

With that said lots of items have come down in price, like fresh meat, dairy, grains, pasta, etc.

But other items have recently had an increase like canned beans and vegetables, ice cream, frozen items.

At Albertson's canned beans went up a solid 90 cents. At Stater Bros they went up 40 cents.

So I wait for 10/$10 sales to stock up.

Milk has gone back up $1 for what we get per gallon.

Chicken and ground turkey has gone down $1-2 per pound. And I saw whole chickens for 99 cents a pound. Lately on sale it was $1.29 p/p. Years ago they would be on sale for 69 cents per pound and 2x a year would go to 39 cents a pound.

I also noticed sales have changed at Albertson's as well as their member coupons. More sugar crap and drinks seem to be the priority right now. Those items aren't moving so the sales help.

We shop Aldi for some produce (various berries, onions, bananas, small potatoes, tomatoes) and then split the rest between Stater Bros and Albertson's.

Personally I never found WM to be cheaper.

And my Target is the same or more on items I buy so I don't shop there. Only time I get a food item is when my stores are out of King Arthur GF flours. They are comparable to me buying on line and shipping.

I don't understand how corporations don't get the correlation. If people buy more at lower prices, it is the same as fewer people buying less at higher prices. If you pay your workers, the money goes back into the economy. When people buy stuff, it creates jobs.

I had return at Target and ended up picking up a couple things for dinner and they were cheaper than Walmart. One was an item Aldi didn’t carry snd their prices on sliced Swiss was much cheaper than Walmart and about the same as Aldi. I think Target has lowered some things. Our store is small so doesn’t carry as much selection so I don’t shop there often. Aldi and Walmart are about 7 minutes away vs 15-20 for Target.

I have ordered a few things online at the beginning of summer on some basics and they were much cheaper than Walmart snd they used to be more by about 25% so they have lowered things quite a bit. Yes they are higher than in 2014 but that’s to be expected. I think luxury items are up more than others.

Still ridiculously expensive

I shop primarily at Aldi and then go across the street to Publix to fill in. I do shop from the sale ads and I tend to make my menu from the pantry/freezer and what's in my farm box (fruits and veg) so my grocery shop is primarily dairy products (milk, cheese, eggs, yoghurt), sale items to restock the pantry/freezer (typically meat/fish and pantry ingredients vs packaged foods - with some exceptions - Mrs T's pierogies are on tomorrow's grocery list as they are BOGOF), and then replacing basics that have run out. Plus of course cat and household needs

Eggs are down - not back to .99/dozen but down below $2/dozen. Milk is pretty much where it's been for several years - just under $5/gal at Publix and under $2/halfgallon at Aldi. Meat and fish prices seem fairly stable at regular price but I'm seeing sales a little more often. Canned goods have increased and so have 'junk food' prices. Cat food went up a while ago and hasn't gone back down. Our cat litter hasn't changed price in years. I stopped buying soda (thanks Covid -it now tastes flat) but it went up a LOT over the past few years.