The Rising Cost Of Staple Foods

Discussion in 'Shopping & Sales' started by Yvonne Smith, Nov 7, 2015.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We ususally make one meal for the day, and then just eat that whenever we are hungry, until it is gone. The meal is usually something like a soup or stew, and we share it with the dogs.
    So, yesterday, we decided to have split pea soup, because we have not had that for a long time. I could not find any of those little bags of split peas at Kroger, and it is a huge store. Then, I said surely there are some in the health foods section, but there was not any there either, just little cans of soup.
    There was barely any variety in the bags of beans, and it used to be that a person had a large selection in the type of beans, from black beans, to red kidney beans, to the big old butterbeans (our favorite). Now, there was navy beans, and pinto beans, and that was about it.
    And the prices were almost $2 for a lb of beans, where they used to be under $1 a lb.

    We ended up stopping at the little family grocery down the road from us, and they didn't have any split peas either, but in the Asian food part of the store, they had bags of whole dried peas; so we are making the pea soup with that.

    After we got home, I looked on Amazon to check out prices, and their split peas are $15 for a 5 lb bag, which is $3 a lb. That is crazy ! You can usually buy hamburger for about that price.
    Has anyone else noticed the price of staple foods skyrocketing, and the variety becoming harder to find ?
     
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  2. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith , I totally agree with you on the cost off food. I remember in the mid '60's that chicken was 15 cents a pound, and that was for the nice big fat ones.

    It's like a seesaw with the Basic Wage on the other end. After many years of doing very large payroles, I got to noticing that just about the time employees started asking for overtime or raises was when the government would start to talk of raising the minimum wage. It is a way to manipulate the populous. If more people would understand this seesaw effect I bet some of the things we want from our leaders would change.

    As for variety, Houston has every kind of gorcery store you can imagine. There Is so much competition in the market that even the store I go to, H-E-B, is as big as your Walmart. But I miss the little mom and pop stores where they knew your name, and said hello with real gladness to see you.

    Would you like me to send you some bags of split peas for Christmas.:p:rolleyes:
     
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  3. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    Yvonne, today I went to Walmart and also to my local grocery store. Walmart had ONE brand of split peas, Goya16 oz, for 98 cents a bag.

    The supermarkets Goya section had no split peas.

    The only other dried split pea brand available at the supermarket was Jack Rabbit (my mothers choice). The 16 oz bag was on sale for 99 cents a bag, marked down from 1.29.

    Looks like the brick and mortar store wins over online store this time!

    I now have three bags of dried split peas!
     
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  4. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    In the olden days, maybe 5 or 10 years ago, the cost of gasoline kept on creeping up the price meter. An increase of some centavos in gas prices would reverberate in food prices. Particularly affected are the public markets that rely on big trucks that deliver the farm produce. But when questioned on the logic of the increase, the cost of farm products suddenly stabilized. Clearly, there was a collusion between the trader - they are the buyers of produce straight from the farm and they transport the same to the market - and the market vendors hence the prices kept on rising.

    With groceries and supermarkets, they couldn't do an artificial price increase because the department of trade can revoke their licenses. That's why the groceries and supermarkets are the best indicators of the real prices of goods.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It seems like our prices can change for just about any old reason here in the United States. Last summer was the big worry about poultry flu. It didn't seem to affect local farmers with chickens; but the big commercial growers were having to close down, kill all of the infected chickens and turkeys, sanitize everything, and then start over with a fresh batch of chickens/turkeys. Even the prices of eggs doubled.
    This process would take about three months, and then it was another three months before they would have poultry for sale again.
    To avoid this, many of the poultry farms simply sold out their chickens or turkeys before they got sick. They still had to start all over; but at least they did get some money for the poultry they had raised, so many of them thought it was the safest plan, under the circumstances.
    Even though there was extra poultry on the market, I do not think prices went down much, if at all. However, now that we are nearing Thanksgiving, and the turkey shortage is showing up, the turkey prices are apparently higher than usual this year.
    The little grocery store near us said that they were not even going to carry turkeys this year due to the cost.
     
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  6. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    Hi Corie,

    What I
    take from your post is that some people complained about artifical price hikes and it worked. While it's true that everything comes to us by truck and therefore gas increases mean price hikes for our goods, some retailers take advantage and falsely inflate prices.

    Yvonne, the same cheats with eggs and poultry. It makes me so mad. That "bird flu" NEVER happened in my area, yet the price of eggs went way up. True, poultry not too much, but eggs yes. It's terrible that small stores will not be able to profit by selling turkey for Thanksgiving!
     
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    Last edited: Nov 8, 2015
  7. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    @Ruby Begonia We had the same issue here. The Texas fowl weren't affected, yet egg prices skyrocketed. It was very irritating, because I've had to cut back from eating many meats, and had been substituting eggs for meat protein.

    @Yvonne Smith I started noticing this a few years ago. I ran to Kroger, since that is the closest grocery store, and they had one type of split peas. I wanted to use both green and yellow, because I like variety, but they only had the one. I later went to HEB (a Texas based grocery chain) and they had a better variety. HEB tends to carry a lot of Hispanic type foods, on top of the regular ones, which is probably why they had a better variety. They have a lot of different types, colors, sizes, in beans, and so that's usually where I buy beans/peas now.

    I've certainly noticed the increasing price of grocery items. I live on staples, and like y'all, I cook one pot and eat that until it's gone. I'm tired of the media and government looking the other way and claiming everything is fine when so many are struggling just to survive.
     
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  8. Krissttina Isobe

    Krissttina Isobe Veteran Member
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    :oops:Prices sure does go up! I noticed that this past week at Walmart. Things didn't go up .10 they went up a dollar or .80 at one time! I buy frozen french fries 2 pound bags for the month and was so happy to find them at Walmart for just 1.74. Granted the quality is mostly good, but for the price I wan't complaining. This past week 2 of my favorite things I buy went up in price. One is the french fries it is now 2.74. The other is the Buttery Crackers 16 oz. size that was 1.98, now 2.76! I stood there and sighed inwardly for now my favorite store was just a little cheaper than other stores.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We have pretty much stopped buying any kind of snack items, because there is just no way to have the important foods and the snack foods as well.
    Since meat is so much more costly than it was before, we just use it to flavor most of our meals, and not as such a large portion of food as it used to be.
    We always first get the fresh veggies , greens, and some fruit, and then whatever staple items we need, and then see what kind of meat is on sale.
    Crackers, chips , and other snacks are only for a special treat now and then. With all of the places that lost crops this year, it is no wonder that prices are continuously going up all of the time.
     
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  10. The only product I hate to buy is eggs- seems every time I go to the store the price has risen.
     
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  11. Terry Page

    Terry Page Supreme Member
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    There is a supermarket price war in the UK at the moment so food prices in general are falling, the two German chains Aldi and Lidyl have changed our food shopping habits completely, with food at up to 30% cheaper than the big UK chains, including the US Walmart Asda group.
     
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  12. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    Terry any idea how those price wars got started? (Hee hee).:rolleyes:
     
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  13. Ruby Begonia

    Ruby Begonia Supreme Member
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    Yvonne, while reading your post I realized you're eating healthier now than many people! Certainly more than I am. From what I've been reading, weve all been eating too much meat anyway.
     
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  14. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    Question: What's the difference between what used to be a 3 pound can of coffee and those little 'K' cups?

    Answer: Not much!

    Have you noticed the size of coffee cans lately? Every time I go to the store they are smaller than they were before.
     
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  15. Terry Page

    Terry Page Supreme Member
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    Yes Ruby in a word or rather two "The Germans" it was all down to Aldi and Lidl who have a completely different concept of retailing, in this instance we are grateful to the Germans. :rolleyes:

    Like fellow German supermarket Aldi, Lidl has a no-frills approach of displaying most of its products in their original delivery cartons, allowing the customers to take the product directly from the carton. When the carton is empty, it is simply replaced with a full one. Staffing is minimal, so that a profit can still be made even though the prices are low.

    Since launching in the United Kingdom in September 1994, Lidl has grown consistently, and today has over 590 stores. While it is still a small player in the United Kingdom, with a grocery market share of less than 5%, its importance, along with that of continental no-frills competitor Aldi is growing, with half of shoppers in the United Kingdom visiting Aldi or Lidl over Christmas.

    In June 2015, the company announced it will create its US headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
     
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