Is there a constantly updated list for average pricing in the USA for commodities like meat, produce,seafood, etc.
I would find such a list extremely helpful in managing the pricing structure of my grocery store.
I’m sorry that I do not have an answer for this but I do wonder why you are asking.
Those items that you list are not considered commodities in the sense that they are not traded on a national commodities market. I do not know if there is a national market for the raw foods that you carry in your grocery store where there would be standardized pricing.
Also, commodities traded on national markets are pretty far back in the supply chain. These are raw materials. Their prices would have some impact on finished products and looking at futures prices might give you some idea of projected market movement, but it’s not useful for spot pricing finished goods in a specific store. Coffee spot or futures prices won’t tell you how to price a pound of Peet’s.
Last, national averages won’t tell you anything about how you should be pricing in a specific local market. If your store is in Juno your pricing is going to be a lot different than New Orleans, even if you source some of your food from the same suppliers.
Both Walmart and Amazon have groceries on their websites- I would think they would give you as good of an idea as any what the “going price” is for any particular item.
There are all sorts of agricultural markets services you can subscribe to. Some of them are even updated continuously.
But knowing the daily average price for live cattle isn’t going to do you much good unless you’re planning on going down to the feedlot and pick out a steer that day.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps stats for both Consumer Price Indexes and Producer Price Indexes. You may have to dig around through their various tools, but somewhere they have a list of average commodity food prices by region (I have used it previously, years ago).
ETA: Just noticed that it is probably not what you are looking for as it is more historical data than current costs.
Doesn’t seem to include the items listed in the OP. And the purpose is quite different.
It may be that an experienced person (perhaps the meat department manager at a supermarket chain?) knows how the current price for live cattle relates to the current retail price for ground beef.
But you don’t really want an average US price. You want an average price for the stores that your customers could reasonably shop at. For some things, that’s going to be significantly different (maple syrup is cheaper in Vermont, for instance…)
If you just want to know general trends (is beef particularly expensive this year because of a cattle disease or something), that’s already going to be reflected in the wholesale price. So all you really need to know is what your supplier is charging you, and the general industry mark-up on that kind of item. You know the first, and the second you can get from grocery magazines or trade groups.
If you want to know what your competitors are pricing things at, there’s not much you can do except go there and look. Though in this modern age, you might be able to just check websites for those stores that have them.
My store gets some of the same deals that your store gets. Last week something like 8 pallets of potatoes (in 8# bags) showed up on a ‘sell it for what you can, we’ll figure out what you owe us later’ situation.
Now, produce is easy, it’s what we do. What’s more difficult is when things like 30 cases of canned corn or some other oddball item that we don’t deal with on a regular basis. We have to sell it cheap enough to not have it tied up in inventory, but not so cheap that people think there’s something wrong with it and walk past it based on nothing more than that.
Anyways, honestly, I’ve found the best thing to do is call the local supermarket and/or small corner store and ask what their price is and go from there. However, I always use my cell phone and try not to use technical terms. That is, ask how much “uhh, the medium shrimp, but not those vietnam ones” are, not “26/30 raw Texas Bay, IQF in 5# bags” or “how much are oranges?” not “how much are 72ct navels?..are they California or Mexico?”.
TLDR: Either call around or hit the supermarkets a few times a week and take some pictures of the shelf tags.
This is good advice but does not work my particular situation. I buy on the overstocks and close out market. A lot of times paying one price for the whole lot. So I could get a truckload of mixed meat products that I pay $1/lb across the board. The chicken on it is not worth that, but the seafood and steaks are worth much more than $1/lb (remember I am a liquidator so I want to be extremely competitive)
A list with average prices would be helpful in that I would be able to see what it tends to sell for and adjust prices accordingly.