[QUOTE=Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party]
Good God man, are you shitting me? Every other baked bean tastes rank compared to Heinz’s!
[/QUOTE]
I used to agree with you, but I have now convertd to Branston’s beans
[QUOTE=StarvingButStrong]
A talking head on the news the other day said this all might end up being good for American’s health. More expensive food = less food eaten (especially the usually less healthy food eaten out) and more expensive gas = more walking/biking.
[/QUOTE]
Someone who has never been poor might assume so. We might lose weight, but I doubt it will be good for our health. Firstly, people will be cutting out preventative care in order to save money. Secondly, cheap food is crap - people will be buying more Ramen noodles and boxed mac’n’cheese, but milk and fresh produce and meat will be cut. I don’t see either of these as particularly positive.
[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
Chances are pretty good that the store price reflects the price the store is paying their suppliers. Quite a number of foods have jumped in price recently, reflecting increases in supply, transportation, and other costs.
[/QUOTE]
In the UK supermarket prices can also reflect the area they are in. Wealthy area - high prices. Poor area but with bad transport links - high prices.
[QUOTE=fluiddruid]
Someone who has never been poor might assume so. We might lose weight, but I doubt it will be good for our health. Firstly, people will be cutting out preventative care in order to save money. Secondly, cheap food is crap - people will be buying more Ramen noodles and boxed mac’n’cheese, but milk and fresh produce and meat will be cut. I don’t see either of these as particularly positive.
[/QUOTE]
I agree; I’m not even sure poor people these days know how to cook like my mom did back in the day (feeding seven people on very little money). She was raised on making everything from scratch; who cooks like that these days? Who has time to, if both members of a couple are working?
[QUOTE=tagos]
In the UK supermarket prices can also reflect the area they are in. Wealthy area - high prices. Poor area but with bad transport links - high prices.
[/QUOTE]
I was always under the impression that no matter what area you lived in, the price for a can of peas in Tesco Dumpsville was the same as that in Tesco Poshville.
In other words the same pricing structure across all Tesco stores in the UK
[QUOTE=chowder]
I was always under the impression that no matter what area you lived in, the price for a can of peas in Tesco Dumpsville was the same as that in Tesco Poshville.
In other words the same pricing structure across all Tesco stores in the UK
[/QUOTE]
It’s common practice. I see it myself when I go down South.
[QUOTE=chowder]
I was always under the impression that no matter what area you lived in, the price for a can of peas in Tesco Dumpsville was the same as that in Tesco Poshville.
In other words the same pricing structure across all Tesco stores in the UK
[/QUOTE]
Well I’ll be savagely rogered by a 6 foot trucker from Wichita named Steve.
Just goes to show how wrong I was
[QUOTE=An Arky]
They’re really insidious about it here in the U.S… Regular prices themselves have increased modestly on most things (more on others), but the real difference is that you used to find way more things on sale each week, now there’s hardly anything…and they’re starting to reduce package sizes, as well.
[/QUOTE]
It’s sneakier than that. Many food and product manufacturers have realized that people complain and balk at higher prices, so they’ve begun the sneakiest tactic yet: keep prices and packaging the same, but reduce the amount of product that goes into the package. You think you’re getting the same amount you used to, but you’re not.
Cereal boxes are the same size, just a little emptier. Potato chip bags lightened up from 16 down to 13 ounces. Ice cream that used to come in half-gallon containers now comes in 1-3/4 to 1-1/2 quart packages. The empty cardboard tube in the middle of toilet paper and paper towel rolls got a little big bigger, so the package stays the same, but there are fewer sheets. Soap bars dropped from 4.5 ounces to an even 4, while keeping the same sized box. Fruit juice comes in a fancy new container that “required” a drop from 96 ounces to 89. An ounce has gone missing from 1 pound jars of peanut butter. A 20 pound bag of dog food now has 18 pounds. And so on.
So Max my OP is correct. The supermarkets are a load of money grabbing bastards.
They’re also sneaky, conniving, snidey insidious fuckers into the bargain
[QUOTE=chowder]
So Max my OP is correct. The supermarkets are a load of money grabbing bastards.
They’re also sneaky, conniving, snidey insidious fuckers into the bargain
[/QUOTE]
The supermarket doesn’t manufacture or package the products, friend.
[QUOTE=Hello Again]
The supermarket doesn’t manufacture or package the products, friend.
[/QUOTE]
Indeed they don’t…well apart from their own brand that is 
Even those they don’t manufacture or package are still sold BY THEM at the same price as the packages that at one time contained more.
[QUOTE=chowder]
Indeed they don’t…well apart from their own brand that is
Even those they don’t manufacture or package are still sold BY THEM at the same price as the packages that at one time contained more.
[/QUOTE]
they don’t manufacture or package their own brand either. These are bought in from outside vendors who make the products as “own label” for the supermarkets.
[QUOTE=eleanorigby]
I would never buy a Lunchable.
[/QUOTE]
Word, although I must admit my daughter likes that type of stuff because other kids at school eat them. I send what I like to call “ghetto lunchables” to school – which is basically the same ingredients, except I packaged it myself. I figure I can make her lunches for under 50¢ per day, even if I use the “name brand” deli meats and cheeses (and I usually don’t – she doesn’t seem to notice either way).
What I will never understand about the grocery store is why stuff like no-salt-added veggies and no-sugar-added fruit comes in smaller containers AND costs more. And I am not talking about more per ounce or more per volume or more for the name brand, but actually more – like, a 12-oz. can of “premium” regular sliced carrots is 89¢, but an 8-oz. can of store-brand no-salt-added carrots is $1.09. Huh?
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
The local store is now offering for sale 8 oz. Kraft cheese slices for $5.05 a package. You can buy their 16 oz American cheese slices for $5.87 last time I looked. I’ve had to cut out almost all cheese, butter, pizza and cuts of meat from my diet. I’m back to eating a lot of hot dogs which I hate. Small lemons are $1.00 a piece so none of them ever. Cooking oil is very expensive so no using it for much. The increases are hard enough, but my town has an expensive pretentious market. I hate this town.
[/QUOTE]
I went there after posting this and the local store American cheese was raised again to $6.09.
I got a ride to Woodmans in Madison yesterday, which means I bought what I really want and the price was 66% to 50% of the local price. I now get to eat for a whole month instead of running out two weeks into the month. Bonus the cheese I wanted had a rep there so I got $.25 coupons for 5 packages of cheese I was going to buy anyway. Buying two packs of crackers got me a pound of American cheese as a bonus. The crackers cost less than the cheese. I got two of those deals. Cheese!!!
Question: Do you have these so called loyalty cards in the USA?
If so what do you get back in return for your “loyalty”
[QUOTE=chowder]
Question: Do you have these so called loyalty cards in the USA?
If so what do you get back in return for your “loyalty”
[/QUOTE]
Yup, we got 'em. You get additional discounts that people without the tag don’t get. In my experience, good sales on meat (or any other commodity staple like flour) always require the tag. Sometimes you get “bounceback” coupons at checkout (they print on your receipt) but those are only rarely worthwhile.
[QUOTE=tomndebb]
When my kids write their own versions of “Mommy Dearest”, my absolute refusal to buy Lunchables and similar items will very likely head their list of Grave Injustices. In 28+ years of combined pre-school and school for two kids, I bought individually packaged lunches (or even deserts) about six times. I always made the kids’ lunches by hand from bulk foods or leftovers. I also encouraged them to bring home their plastic containers and their paper bags (cheap bastard) although I was less successful in that effort. OTOH, they got decent food–mixes of meat, fruit, veggies, and dairy with less sodium than their classmates–and they never joined the ranks of supersized kids.
[/QUOTE]
Heh. My mom made us peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches on white bread from the used bread store for ten years straight. She also included a Little Debbie cake which we would eat on the way to school. I clearly remember one day in primary school when somehow I got a zip-lock bag of Fritos which must have been leftover from something, and one day when mom had to go shopping and delivered a baloney sandwich to school–wow.
Anyhoo, to me food was love and I did become supersized after leaving home and getting to buy anything I wanted.
[QUOTE=chowder]
Question: Do you have these so called loyalty cards in the USA?
If so what do you get back in return for your “loyalty”
[/QUOTE]
In most cases, they swipe it at checkout and it applies the sale prices to applicable goods.
[QUOTE=eleanorigby]
Y
I buy no alcohol or liquor. Can’t think the last time I had a glass of wine–I miss it sometimes (not often).
[/QUOTE]
Here, blessedly, in the Pacific NW wine and beer have been rock-stable in prices, with many wines even dropping in price over the past couple of years since small-scale indie wineries have been sprouting up everywhere.
It’s nearly getting to the point where, like it was in Italy when I visited, wine is the cheapest beverage.
For using our loyalty cards we get the princely sum of ONE FUCKING PENNY for every £ we spend.
On rare, and I mean rare, occasions we get a separate ticket with our receipt which usually offers us:
- Extra ClubCard points off our next purchases…great joy I don’t think
- 5p a litre off petrol if we spend over £50 in a single transaction
- Money off some useless crap that we seldom if ever buy
- Again( rarely )we get money of cheese and other stuff that we do buy