# What food price increase most surprises you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039 "2025-07-18T13:38:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/61 "2025-07-21T15:22:02Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > EVERYONE is trying to price discriminate based on guessing what it will take for that particular customer to buy. It totally trashes the “consumer surplus” that is supposed to make every transaction a “good deal” for both buyer and seller because the seller isn’t selling at the absolute minimum price they would take, and the buyer isn’t paying the absolute maximum price they would pay. > > There is a joke going around on LinkedIn that the first three most compelling use cases for AI are fraud, porn and price discrimination. For decades sellers have been trying to utilize purchase data to price discriminate better than just offering weekly specials and mass mailing coupons. They had very little success. But now it is exploding. Can you elaborate on this? Are the apps providing information asymmetry that puts the consumer at a disadvantage by limiting their options? What about people who have apps for 5+ fast food restaurants, wouldn’t that negate some of this because if one app doesn’t provide good deals, people just use a different app. On the subject of AI and price discrimination, its not related to food but its happening with rent. All the landlords use AI to compare their rent prices to other complexes, and it is basically price fixing. All their AI are setting rent prices based on what the other AI are charging. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/62 "2025-07-21T15:38:42Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Can you elaborate on this? Are the apps providing information asymmetry that puts the consumer at a disadvantage? Yes. The sellers and buying and selling data about buyers that enable them to know (or guess) where people are buying what items and at what price. So if they identify you as a price insensitive buyer, you don’t get offers for discounts. You get other messaging. If you are price sensitive, and go to two grocery stores plus Costco, they might send you offers that would make that not worthwhile. Like if you shop at Publix and Kroger and buy a lot of sale items, when Kroger has OJ on sale, Publix might send you a discount on OJ, so you needn’t go to Kroger. On the other hand if you are not price sensitive, they may send you no offers. In the past they would both just run weekly specials. The “lazy” shopper would get discounts they weren’t trying to get. Now you have fewer of these, and more “personalized” offers. It’s even worse online. ---
**Author:** ![Tokushizu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Tokushizu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokushizu)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/63 "2025-07-21T15:42:00Z")
Truly off topic as my addition to the thread has nothing to do with food price increases, but regarding AI and pricing, even the airlines are beginning to use it when it comes to pricing air fares. So if you are looking to buy a ticket on Delta, you may want to watch out. > **[Delta Air Lines is using AI to set the maximum price you’re willing to pay](https://www.theverge.com/news/709556/delta-air-lines-ai-ticket-price-rollout)** > > And seeing “amazingly favorable” results. (Mods, feel free to delete this if I’ve gone too far off topic. Thank you in advance. 🙏🙇🙏) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/64 "2025-07-21T15:59:47Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Yes. The sellers and buying and selling data about buyers that enable them to know (or guess) where people are buying what items and at what price. So if they identify you as a price insensitive buyer, you don’t get offers for discounts. You get other messaging. If you are price sensitive, and go to two grocery stores plus Costco, they might send you offers that would make that not worthwhile. > > Like if you shop at Publix and Kroger and buy a lot of sale items, when Kroger has OJ on sale, Publix might send you a discount on OJ, so you needn’t go to Kroger. On the other hand if you are not price sensitive, they may send you no offers. > > In the past they would both just run weekly specials. The “lazy” shopper would get discounts they weren’t trying to get. Now you have fewer of these, and more “personalized” offers. > > It’s even worse online. Thats interesting. When I use the mcdonald’s app I always assumed everyone got the same deals, but I guess the deals they give me are personalized based on my buying habits. However grocery stores still have the weekly ads. Around me the major groceries are places like aldi, meijer, kroger, costco, etc and they all have a weekly ad with deals. however places like kroger do have digital coupons which ties into what you are saying. As far as information asymmetry, what about apps like flipp which let you cross reference all the weekly ads in different stores to find the best price? If I’m looking for ground beef, I may just check flipp to see who has the best price. For example, we were talking about soda earlier. Looking on flipp, the best deals on coke/pepsi right now are Meijer which has 1.25L bottles for $1 each if you buy 7 or more. So that works out to about $8.52 for enough 1.25L bottles of coke/pepsi to equal the amount of soda in a 24 pack of 12oz cans. Meanwhile Family Dollar normally sells 2 liters of pepsi for $2.95 where I am, but they have a ‘buy 2, get 2 free’ deal right now so that works out to $1.48 per 2 liter, so about $7.88 for the equivalent of a 24 pack of 12oz cans. Of course thats a lot of legwork just to buy soda, seeing how people need to buy dozens of different items at the store, and only one of which is soda. I recently bought some non-food items, so I went on an AI program and asked it to find me the best deals. It found a deal better than I could’ve found myself. So I’m wondering what role apps and AI will play in evening out the balance between buyers and sellers. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/65 "2025-07-21T16:58:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Thats interesting. When I use the mcdonald’s app I always assumed everyone got the same deals, but I guess the deals they give me are personalized based on my buying habits. > > However grocery stores still have the weekly ads. Around me the major groceries are places like aldi, meijer, kroger, costco, etc and they all have a weekly ad with deals. however places like kroger do have digital coupons which ties into what you are saying. My usual store is Safeway and they have a weekly ad plus “Just for U” deals that are, I assume customized to my shopping preferences. Though it’s a bit sad just how they’ve nailed my terrible dietary habits. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/66 "2025-07-21T17:04:53Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I can agree with that. And all the sale prices I see are something stupid like “…When you buy five cases”. These days I just buy a six pack of fancy soda as a treat now and then but otherwise don’t keep soda at home. I’ve noticed odd sales prices of a lot of items in addition to soda. Last year I went to Kroger and I could purchase a single bag of Chex Mix for $4.00+ or I could purchase five bags for $10. And of course with soda, I won’t pay $8.00+ for a 12 pack, so I’ll wait until I can buy 4-5 at one when it ends up costing about $5.00 a 12 pack. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/67 "2025-07-21T17:13:29Z")
A lot of people do not stock up. Either they don’t have storage space for 5 bags of chex mix, or they don’t eat it fast enough to not have the last 3 bags be stale on opening, or they can’t afford to buy 5 bags of chex mix and still buy the rest of this week’s groceries with this week’s cash. But offering these seemingly huge discounts that many (most) customers won’t take advantage of sure helps to create buzz that they’re a great place to shop with lots of discounts. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/68 "2025-07-22T16:38:37Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > And of course with soda, I won’t pay $8.00+ for a 12 pack, so I’ll wait until I can buy 4-5 at one when it ends up costing about $5.00 a 12 pack. I sometimes do that, but I suspect the low soda prices are for product that is old. Seems like the better the deal I get, the quicker the soda goes flat once opened. It could all be in my head, but soda normally seems to stay carbonated for a couple of hours after opening. I’ve bought soda on sale that is literally starting to taste flat in about 15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/69 "2025-07-22T16:51:41Z")
I used to drink _lots_ of Coca-Cola and would have multiple 12-packs or 24-packs in my apartment, I noticed that the deep discounts centered around holidays like Independence Day or party days like Superbowl Sunday. So I’d buy up lots in advance of those occasions. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/70 "2025-07-22T16:58:36Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > I sometimes do that, but I suspect the low soda prices are for product that is old. Seems like the better the deal I get, the quicker the soda goes flat once opened. It could all be in my head, but soda normally seems to stay carbonated for a couple of hours after opening. I’ve bought soda on sale that is literally starting to taste flat in about 15 minutes. I usually purchase Coca-Cola products, so I’m not sure they sit around on the shelves for all that long. I did notice at Kroger yesterday they were going $10.99 for a 12-pack at buy 2 get 1 free which comes out to $7.33 each. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > But offering these seemingly huge discounts that many (most) customers won’t take advantage of sure helps to create buzz that they’re a great place to shop with lots of discounts. Maybe. I am sure there some rationale that Kroger believes benefits them, but I don’t know if buzz is it. I ended up buying 5 bags of Chex Mix as I knew I’d eventually eat them over the next month or so, so no risk of them going stale. But I hate feeling as though I have to wait for sales and purchase in bulk. I want to walk out of the store with two 12 packs of Coke rather than 5 of them. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/71 "2025-07-22T21:24:23Z")
with coffee, Brazil is having climate problems, causing increases ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/72 "2025-07-22T21:52:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I used to drink _lots_ of Coca-Cola and would have multiple 12-packs or 24-packs in my apartment, I noticed that the deep discounts centered around holidays like Independence Day or party days like Superbowl Sunday. So I’d buy up lots in advance of those occasions. Yes, I can get buy 2 six packs get 3 free at these times. I’ve got room in my garage for them. The deal isn’t limited to Coke, and I can combine other types of soda with it. The only time I buy soda now. I remember when inflation started Coke and Pepsi both raised prices far faster than inflation, and bragged about it at analyst meetings. I think Pepsi said they got pushback. I see more frequent sales now, though the list price is unchanged. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > My usual store is Safeway and they have a weekly ad plus “Just for U” deals that are, I assume customized to my shopping preferences. Though it’s a bit sad just how they’ve nailed my terrible dietary habits. I’m retired so I have the time to go through the Safeway online ads. The first set of discounts is definitely customized, then you get a long list of standard ones. Using that and buying what is on sale we save typically 40 - 50% of the (artificially high) list price. I’ve noticed prices going down over the past year - not list prices, but the prices I pay due to better discounts and more frequent sales. I never pay more than $2.50 a pound for bone-in chicken thighs and usually less than $2.00. And I’m in the expensive Bay area. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/73 "2025-07-22T22:03:03Z")
It’s definitely worthwhile to buy what’s on sale and to buy extra. So if your preferred tuna fish is a buck a can, rather than, say, $2.50 per can, buy ten or more cans. It keeps for a long time. I like Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream in the little 3.6 ounce tubs. Yes, on a per ounce basis, it’s an expensive way to buy ice cream but I like it as a portion control measure. Sometimes these tubs are $2.29 each but it can go on sale for a buck each and then I’ll buy six or ten. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/74 "2025-07-22T22:35:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A lot of people do not stock up. Either they don’t have storage space for 5 bags of chex mix, or they don’t eat it fast enough to not have the last 3 bags be stale on opening, or they can’t afford to buy 5 bags of chex mix and still buy the rest of this week’s groceries with this week’s cash. > > But offering these seemingly huge discounts that many (most) customers won’t take advantage of sure helps to create buzz that they’re a great place to shop with lots of discounts. I am not as strong or physically able as I used to be and I cannot even carry many groceries from my car to the house anymore. So I don’t buy in bulk. It just doesn’t work for me. I just absorb the cost or find a local store with cheaper prices whenever I can. Canned vegetables have gone a bit crazy in price but that’s no surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/75 "2025-07-23T02:53:54Z")
All the talk about high soda prices makes me glad that after a couple of cups of joe in the morning, I drink little other than tap water. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/76 "2025-07-23T03:25:03Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What about people who have apps for 5+ fast food restaurants, wouldn’t that negate some of this because if one app doesn’t provide good deals, people just use a different app. Those are price sensitive customers that eat a lot of fast food and they’ll probably get a good deal. I do eat fast food but I’ve never installed an app. Saving a couple bucks on a meal is not worth even unlocking my phone, let alone having to install the app and navigate to it. I’m price insensitive and therefore get the worst deals on everything. No different than coupons. They’re for people who can be bothered to read the flyers and clip them out. The fact that they went through extra effort demonstrates that they’re price sensitive and thus they get the discount. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/77 "2025-07-23T03:35:38Z")
Luckily my time has very little value, because when I go to mcdonalds I combine the ‘buy 1, get one for $1’ combo on mcdoubles with the 40% off mdcoubles app coupon, giving me 3 mcdoubles for $6. I’m more mcdouble than man at this point. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/78 "2025-07-23T11:51:07Z")
I’m partial to the lightly flavored fizzy water like the La Croix brand. But I’m happy with the Winn-Dixie house brand that comes in 6 decent flavors. They’re only sold in 12-packs of all one flavor. I drink 1 can most days, and skip it entirely on other days. I rotate through the various flavors from day to day. Yesterday was stock-up day so I went and bought one each 12-pack of 6 flavors. 72 cans is a ~3-month supply. But boy did I feel guilty / stupid with a cart full of soda and a package of laundry detergent, with no real food to be seen. Anyhow it’s $5.99/12pack and they had a BOHO sale, so six packs came to $27 or $0.37 per can. Ref @Dr.Strangelove 2 posts up, I didn’t know about the sale until I got there, but was happy to take advantage when I saw it. I was amazed to see 12-packs of Coke or Pepsi products advertised for IIRC $12. Ref somebody upthread, clearly it’s not the cost of aluminum cans that’s driving that; my soda was the same price as a year ago. It’s either sugar prices or just both Coke & Pepsi getting the pricing bit in their teeth and raping the consumers for all they can while they can. I certainly suspect that any concerns about legal enforcement against illegal price-fixing collusion are utterly absent under the current administration. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039/79 "2025-07-23T12:42:17Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I do eat fast food but I’ve never installed an app. Saving a couple bucks on a meal is not worth even unlocking my phone, let alone having to install the app and navigate to it. I’m price insensitive and therefore get the worst deals on everything. > > No different than coupons. They’re for people who can be bothered to read the flyers and clip them out. The fact that they went through extra effort demonstrates that they’re price sensitive and thus they get the discount. I’m the same way. Yes, I’m sure I could save a bit of money on fast food, but it’s not worth the hassle of managing 2 or 3 additional apps to save a couple bucks once or twice a month. If I was getting McDonald’s every day, yeah sure it might be worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-price-increase-most-surprises-you/1021039.md?page=3)