sister store Aldis is cheaper
has everyone forgotten the Avan flu epidemic where millions of chickens’ were killed, causing.shortages
Well, three sandwiches, and a couple of nice cheeses, and some fresh olives from the olive bar. But still, basically just a few snacks.
I don’t know “exactly” when I had a weekly grocery bill of $69. What I do know is that only about five or six years ago I had a $100 gift certificate to one of the better (i.e.- “more expensive”) grocery stores, and while doing my usual weekly shopping I picked up some durable goods (kitchen stuff) in order to use up the whole amount, instead of dealing with the complexities of leftover credit. These days, a full shopping basket for a week would be well over $150 and often closer to $170 or even more. Most of the time, that’s just shopping for one. I shudder to think of what a family of four or five would cost to feed.
The Food-at-home price index was 245 in March 2020. In January 2021 it is at 302. That’s a 24% increase over almost three years.
The BLS who calculates and publishes this makes adjustments for package sizes, but it’s not perfect. And they can’t really account for quality degradation from manufacturers using cheaper ingredients (“more noodles, less chicken in our new recipe!” said no one ever).
But grocery prices haven’t doubled since the start of the pandemic, no matter what cherry picked numbers people and the media throw around anecdotally.
Those of us on food stamps, at least here in Ohio, get 281 for the month.
Here in my little corner of rural Missouri, they don’t seem particularly bad (knock on wood). I’ve noticed prices creeping up and sizes creeping down (shrinkflation FTW) over the past few years, but not eggregiously so. For me the biggest problem is that I live in a rural area and the one grocery store in town can afford to charge higher prices because captive audience. If I wanted discount groceries, well, Walmart is 35 miles that way or 45 miles the other way. And I’m 100 miles from more … upscale(?) grocers like Schnucks or Trader Joe’s, so I have no idea what’s going on inside there.
Also, I think my proximity to agriculture may play a role. Everyone in the country has been complaining about egg prices lately but they haven’t seemed that high to me. But I can throw a rock and hit a poultry processing plant, so there’s that.
5 dozen free-range, organic feed omega-3 eggs at Costco, $17.50. Not too bad, but more expensive than they used to be. At least they had them.
Kinda-sorta sister store. There are two multinational, German-based grocery chains which operate under the name Aldi: Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd; the two chains were founded by brothers, but are separate companies (though they cooperate with one another)
In most countries other than Germany and the U.S., only one or the other company operates. In the U.S., Aldi Süd operates under the Aldi brand name; the family of Theo Albrecht, who own Aldi Nord, also operate the Trader Joe’s chain.
Canada does not have a genuine discount grocery chain. The big companies run other chains that often offer cheaper prices than their more premium stores. With likely cost cutting and barriers to entry only a big international grocer could have a chance, and Canadian businesses often discourage competition (and then wonder why expanding to the US is often unsuccessful where there is more of it).
Yes, I know some people are complaining about this, but nothing you wrote here is a fact. What is the actual degree of alleged price hikes above “justified levels” and what exactly is a justified level? What the hell is “greedflation”? Is there evidence of any general price fixing now? But then…
Well, yes, that is also a common trait of things that aren’t happening.
I
Standard prices near me are still high but there are more and more decent sales. I just went to our Safeway, and got 10 pounds of chicken quarters for $5, and 5 pounds of skinless, boneless breasts for $5, and boneless pork chops buy one, get one free.
Things are definitely improving.
There isn’t any question Canadians are getting majorly screwed on food prices. My dearest friend lives in Calgary and is growing increasingly alarmed at how the prices keep going up. Yesterday, we created the same order on our respective Walmart sites. Hers was 30% higher. Four chicken breasts were US$22.
What was the weight per lb of the breasts? That’s $5.50 each but it’s very different if they weigh 1lb each vs 1/3.
Canadians face high prices on some things but there are still bargains to be had, and shopping around has become more necessary. I recently bought four big breasts at FreshCo for ten dollars. Availability has generally been good all through Covid. Steaks and roasts can be pricy but even these go on sale.
I don’t recall the weight of the chicken breasts, I know that would make a difference. I’ll tell my friend about Freshco, thanks!
This may not be available in all provinces, and specials generally run Thursday to Thursday. FreshCo is a thriftier division of Sobey’s. Again, Canada has no discount grocer. With rotating specials and a little legwork one can generally buy most items at reasonable prices, especially at the thriftier versions, with a few exceptions and occasional sticker shock at any given store.
However, during and after Covid stuff was generally in stock and widely available with occasional exceptions for toilet paper, yeast, thermometers and liquid medicines for cough and fever.
Eggs suddenly dropped in price here by about half. I paid $2.14 for a dozen at Walmart last week. 18 eggs for $3.22. Still not as cheap as they were a couple of years ago $0.68/dozen, but I’m sure we’ll never see that again.
I don’t remember seeing that price the first time. I probably did but it was too long ago to recall when.
The price has dropped here, in suburban Chicago, too. I’d had to buy eggs about three weeks ago, and a dozen were about $4.50; when I went to buy them on Sunday, they were down to $3.49.
For how many people?