Groceries seem expensive in the US?

[Ximenean]

@Sattua

8oz block cheddar cheese: about $5, but Americans are expected to want shredded cheese, which is cheaper

I suspect this may be be part of it - I tried to choose ordinary items, but a Brit’s idea of “ordinary” might not match an American’s. Here, shredded cheese is no cheaper than blocks of cheese. For all I know, frozen mixed vegetables, say, are not something that Americans normally buy, and hence may be priced more like a speciality item.

[tomcar]

@put_down_the_sabre

As a Brit in the US, I too find this: especially for basic food items like bread and fresh meats and fruit and veg, America is surprisingly expensive, at least on the East Coast.

Junk food (pop, crisps, chocolate) and eating out are extremely cheap.

One weird thing about shopping for food in America is that you either get the dirt cheap crap from walmart, or the very expensive organic hipster stuff from whole foods or a coop. There’s very little middle ground – decent stuff that tastes OK, like you get at tesco.

For comparison, a nice (not crap plastic, but not organic either) loaf of bread will cost you under $1 at tesco in the UK. If you want noncrap bread in the Chapel Hill, NC area, expect to pay $3.

pdts

all good points, but this can’t be emphasized enough.

[salinqmind]

Just about every grocery store I’ve ever been in the last year or so, 8 oz. sticks of cheese have been 2 for $3 in the dairy case. (The “ye olde cheese shoppe” of course sells for vast sums more, and a mind-boggling selection from all over the world.) It has to do with the price of milk, which is very low for various reasons; I know, personally, two owners of dairy farms that have sold off their cows and went into soybeans, because they couldn’t make a living at it any more.

[Rick]

@put_down_the_sabre

As a Brit in the US, I too find this: especially for basic food items like bread and fresh meats and fruit and veg, America is surprisingly expensive, at least on the East Coast.

Junk food (pop, crisps, chocolate) and eating out are extremely cheap.

One weird thing about shopping for food in America is that you either get the dirt cheap crap from walmart, or the very expensive organic hipster stuff from whole foods or a coop. There’s very little middle ground – decent stuff that tastes OK, like you get at tesco.

For comparison, a nice (not crap plastic, but not organic either) loaf of bread will cost you under $1 at tesco in the UK. If you want noncrap bread in the Chapel Hill, NC area, expect to pay $3.

pdts

I repeat again you are talking about the east coast.
Fresh fruit and veggies are very cheap here in California. We grow a lot of this stuff. Meat seems cheaper, but I did not buy much meat when I traveled to the east coast, so that might just be my perception.
As far as mid range markets go, we have tons of them. In So Cal there is (in no particular order) the following chains:
Ralphs
Vons
Food for Less
Albertsons
Hows
Fresh and Easy
Jons
plus a couple of others who’s names I don’t recall.
We also have club stores like Sam’s and Costco. Meat, dairy, and some other items are insanely cheap there.

[Sattua]

I just discussed this thread with my husband as we were… you guessed it… grocery shopping. He had two things to add:

1. No 8oz blocks of cheddar DON’T cost $5. As a poster subsequent to me said. Apparently I suffer from cheese-blindness.

2. Another point a subsequent poster made–things go on insane specials occasionally, and a smart shopper will be flexible going in to the store, and get what’s cheap. We just bought some pork loin for $1.99/pound, on sale, and the equivalent chops were more like $4/lb.

[An_Gadai]

From personal experience in OH versus Dublin, Ireland. Meat, fizzy pop, booze and packaged processed goods tend to be cheaper Stateside, but fresh produce, dairy products are oftentimes way cheaper here.

[elfkin477]

@scifisam2009

@Sattua

Oops, got lost in my own post and forgot my original point: websites for store chains seem to want to charge the most expensive price they can. Drugstore.com, I know, charges way more than my local CVS, and a heck of a lot more than the Meijer ten miles down the road.

So what you’re seeing are the worst case scenario prices, I’d bet.

Really? That’s weird. The Tesco prices online are the same as the ones instore. Of course, we have very widespread home delivery and (according to a thread I read on here) that’s not been very successful in the US; if the prices were different, there’d be an uproar.

I think we’re just used to the fact that online prices and in store prices often don’t match regardless of what sort of stores they’re for. There’s no point at all looking up a price of a new DVD at Wal-mart or a CD at Barnes and Noble before heading to the stores since their websites admit in small print that the prices aren’t the same - usually the online prices are cheaper. None of the local grocery stores here has prices online beyond a copy of their weekly circular, so I can’t speak from experience when it comes to online food prices.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

$43 for 2 bags full, from Kroger, in Tennessee.

And no steak, beef roasts, or lobster.

[Neptunian_Slug]

@Ximenean

	                     Saf    Alb    Bue    Tes	
24oz sliced bread           1.40   2.99   2.00   1.01
2L orange soda              0.88   1.29   0.99   1.03
18oz cornflakes             3.29   1.99   2.37   1.52
Cheddar cheese, 8oz block   3.29   2.99   2.09   2.75
Milk 2%, half gal           2.49   2.19   1.99   1.74
Potatoes, loose, per lb     0.50   0.99   0.59   0.51
Carrots, loose, per lb      0.88   0.70   1.19   0.60
Large can peas              1.20   0.89   0.72   0.71
Pasta, dry, 16oz            1.49   1.29   1.11   1.11
Pasta sauce 26oz            2.50   1.69   1.67   2.32
Veg, mixed, frozen 32oz     2.80   3.49   2.28   1.47
Ground beef, 1lb            4.00   3.50   2.99   2.60
======
Total                      25.02  24.00  19.99  17.37

I don’t think Safeway and Albertson’s have very competitive pricing anyway. Its been years since I stopped in Genuardi’s (Safeway) or Acme (Albertsons). Giant and Wal Mart seem to have much better pricing. Not sure about “dirt cheap crap”. If I buy a box of Muellers macaroni or Pringles at Wal Mart, its not much different than buying a box of macaroni at Genuardis, just cheaper. And I rarely buy stuff at regular price.

Your milk is a bit high for a half gallon. A lot of places sell at the state minimum. Right now I can get a half gallon for $1.90. And that includes the dairy price support.

Bread seems pretty cheap at the Tesco. I think we will pay $1.89 for a loaf of Stroehmans, unless my wife gets this higher end “light” crap at $3.00.

Your meat price doesn’t seem too far off. Ground beef has really skyrocketed in the past few years. I seldom buy the ground beef anyway. Not when I can get a full NY strip for $6.99 at the butcher and cut it down for steaks.

[RaftPeople]

I don’t think it’s a valid comparison to not use the store membership cards.

The membership card price is pretty much “the” price, almost everyone has one and if not, much of the time the checkout person will scan one they have sitting there next to the register.

I’ve never paid $4 for a pound of ground beef at Safeway, been shopping there for a long time.

[kittenblue]

Milk usually goes for $2.49 a GALLON, so that price for a half-gallon is a bit high…but then, the half-gallons are never half the price of the gallons.

Cheese is usually 2/$3-4, so that price is a bit higher than I would pay.

[Wendell_Wagner]

It’s misleading to compare either gallons or half-gallons of milk in the U.S. and the U.K. In the U.S. it’s standard to buy gallons of milk and there won’t be very many half-gallons available in most stores. In the U.K. (if I remember correctly) it’s standard to buy half-gallons of milk and there won’t be many gallons available.

Furthermore, are you remembering to convert units? Gallons and half-gallons are different sizes in the U.S. and the U.K. Gallons (and all other non-metric measures of volume) are about 25% larger in the U.K. than in the U.S.:

Gallon

[Johnny_L.A]

I just got back from the market. I didn’t buy bread, but I saw that the cheap brand by the regional bakery was 99¢ per loaf.

Two pounds of Land-O-Frost sliced roast beef
One pound Land-O-Frost of sliced smoked turkey
Three pounds Darigold unsalted butter ($3.99 each)
Four 12 oz. bags of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate morsels (price reduced to $2.49 each)
Two jars of Nutella
Two 3 lb. jars of Skippy creamy peanut butter ($9.99 each)
A large bag (four pounds?) of quick oats from the bin (price reduced to 57¢/lb)
The same amount of steel-cut oats from the bin (price reduced to 57¢/lb)
A small bag (maybe a pound?) farina ($2.99/lb)
One container Nestlé cocoa powder
Two boxes (20 ct.) 1 qt. zip-top bags (price reduced to $1.99 each)
One box (30 ct.) 1 gallon zip-top bags ($5.49)
Liquid hand soap
5 lb. C&H granulated sugar
750 ml Yellow Tail Shiraz ($6.99)

Total was a bit over $101. Prices quoted are from memory.

[Ximenean]

are you remembering to convert units? Gallons and half-gallons are different sizes in the U.S. and the U.K. Gallons (and all other non-metric measures of volume) are about 25% larger in the U.K. than in the U.S.

Yes, I tried to adjust for units. Man, it was tedious, I have to say. Why can’t you guys use metric?

Nevertheless, your point about bulk buying may be apt. I did notice during my browsing that US stores sometimes offered bigger maximum sizes that Tesco. Maybe the US market is geared more towards bulk buying, what with you having bigger houses, bigger freezers, and generally more storage space. And you have to travel further for your weekly (monthly?) shop, which means less trips and more bulk buying.

[An_Gadai]

Of course I forgot that dairy products includes milk which generally is cheaper in the US.

[MandaJo]

Remember, too, that the markets are different: we eat a lot more peanut better, I believe, and I would assume pay less for it.

ThisUS Govt website suggests that per capita food expenditures are either $1,849 or $2,143 (they have two different estimates) and that UK per capita expenditures are $2104. At the end of the day, it looks like our prices must be fairly similar.

[JoelUpchurch]

I find that I can go weeks without buying any groceries at the supermarket. Places I frequently shop are:

Samsclub
Costco
Dollar Store
Big Lots

I also try to stock up on things that don’t need refrigeration and combine trips. It doesn’t make much sense to drive out of my way to save 50 cents on a loaf of bread.

[Johnny_L.A]

@An_Gadai

Of course I forgot that dairy products includes milk which generally is cheaper in the US.

I tend to buy large blocks of Tillamook medium cheddar cheese. I don’t know how much the one currently in the fridge weighed, because I cut it from the end with the weight. But it weighs 2.14 pounds now, and I’ve eaten about 1/3 of it. It cost $12.95, I think.

I like American cheese (100% real cheese, pateurised-process; not ‘cheese food’ or ‘cheese product’, which contains as little as 51% cheese), and Kraft Deli Deluxe is good. But it’s cheaper to get a five-pound sliced block from Cash & Carry, so I get that. Not as good; but then, American cheese isn’t good for anything but grilled cheese sandwiches and cheeseburgers.

Good cheese can be pricey. Things like gouda, havarti, brie, and whatnot tend to be more expensive in the supermarket than at smaller chains like Trader Joe’s. Or maybe it’s just that Trader Joe’s cheese selections are so tasty that I don’t notice the price. But triple-cream brie does seem to be cheaper there. There’s a cheese shop at Pike Place Market where you can buy cheeses from many countries. (I’ve some nice double Gloucester bought there in the fridge now, and a couple of weeks ago I got some Lappi cheese from Finland.) That place is expensive, but it’s worth it from time to time.

[bibliophage]

In my experience, groceries almost always seem more expensive in an unfamiliar area. When I go to visit relatives in Connecticut, upstate New York, or Maryland, I complain about how expensive groceries are there. When they come to visit me, they complain about how expensive groceries are here. I think it has to do with understanding the local grocery market.

When I’m here, I know which stores have the most reasonable regular prices. I know the stores that have high prices generally but good loss-leaders, and I buy only the loss leaders there. I know which stores double manufacturers’ coupons and under what conditions. I know approximately how long I have to wait for a good sale, and I buy enough of the sale item to tide me over till the next sale. I know about the little store that usually has the cheapest eggs and sometimes has ridiculously cheap produce. I know about the bakery outlet that has bread, often fresher than the grocery store, and always about half the price. I belong to a local warehouse club store and buy there only the dozen or so items that are actually cheaper than elsewhere.

But when I go to visit my relatives, I don’t know any of this about their local market for groceries, and unless I’m staying for months it’s probably not worth learning. When I need groceries there, I just stop at the most convenient store and pay whatever they’re asking. And it always seems expensive.

[antonio107]

I also don’t think, as many previous posters have identified, that once can consider the United States as a whole. In my experience moving back and forth between (Eastern) Ontario and Florida, Florida is more expensive for groceries, but cheaper for fast food, fuel, and sundries (pop, gum, magazines, etc.)

One of my best friends moved from here to B.C., and now lives in California. His experience is different. By his estimates (and he’s far more frugal than I am, he would know), his grocery budget’s been drastically reduced since moving to Orange county.